LEXINGTON ? Freshman pitcher Andrew Albers shut down No. 15 Arkansas in his first career complete game and Kentucky posted a five-run fourth inning en route to a 7-1 victory on Sunday at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
The win gave the Wildcats their first series victory of the season after three straight one-run losses on Sunday when trying to win the series. Kentucky improved to 23-20 on the year, including 5-15 in the league, and is just one win shy of its win total last year with three weeks left in the regular season. Arkansas, which won the SEC and went to the College World Series a year ago, dropped to 33-13 and 9-12 in the conference.
?It?s a great win for our players,? Kentucky head coach John Cohen said. ?We have been so close the past couple weeks, so it?s nice to see all the hard work they have put in be rewarded today.?
The game looked to be a pitching duel early as both pitchers faced the minimum nine batters through three innings. Albers allowed three hits in the first three frames, but got a pair of double-play balls and catcher J.P. Lowen caught one runner stealing.
?We?ve really improved our defense the past couple weeks and today it helped us out tremendously,? Cohen said. ?A lot of our players are young or playing new positions or, in some cases, both. You can see them getting better every week.?
Meanwhile, Kentucky failed to muster a hit in its opening three times at the plate, going 0-for-9 the first time through the order. However, J.B. Schmidt?s single to begin the fourth opened the floodgates as the Wildcats batted around in the inning and cranked out five runs on five hits.
After Antone DeJesus sacrificed Schmidt to second, John Shelby and Michael Bertram had back-to-back RBI singles. Billy Grace followed with an RBI triple and J.P. Lowen drove him in with a double. Lowen later scored on second baseman Brock Bond?s fielding error.
?Our hitters did a great job of making adjustments after the first time through the order and it paid off in a in a big inning,? Cohen said. ?We feel like we have a very good offensive club that has the capability to string together four or five hits in a row like we did today.?
Kentucky struck for two more runs in the sixth to extend the lead to 7-0. Bertram led off with a double and Billy Grace reached on a throwing error by starting pitcher Lee Land as he laid down a sacrifice bunt. The mistake left runners on second and third with nobody out. A passed ball scored Bertram and Collin Cowgill?s sacrifice fly plated Grace.
Land took the loss to fall to 1-2 this year. He allowed seven runs ? five earned ? on six hits and struck out four without walking a batter in five innings. Josh Smith gave up the final two runs while working the last three innings.
Outside of the two scoring innings, the Wildcats managed just two baserunners and got an 0-for-9 performance from the bottom third of the order.
However, it didn?t matter as Albers took a shutout into the seventh and was masterful throughout to improve to 4-4 on the year. He made one mistake that Blake Parker took advantage of for a solo home run in the seventh. The run ended Albers? scoreless streak at 14 1/3 innings. He struck out three and walked two while earning his sixth quality start of the year and second in as many starts.
Of the Arkansas? seven hits, only three went for extra bases including Parker?s home run. However, the other two were a bloop double down the right field line and a ground-rule double when the ball deflected off a diving J.B. Schmidt at third and wound up under the tarp.
?Andrew did a great job today of keeping the ball low and throwing it on the outer half of the plate,? Cohen said. ?With the wind blowing in from right, we wanted to try to force Arkansas to hit the ball that way and it worked out for us.?
Kentucky returns to action Friday when it travels to LSU for a three-game series.
Notes
Kentucky won its first series of the year ? Kentucky won for the first time on Sunday in SEC play under John Cohen ? Kentucky won the final two games of the series after having lost seven straight to Arkansas ? Kentucky is one win shy of matching last year?s win total with three week?s left in the season ? Andrew Albers threw his first complete game ? It was the second complete game pitching effort of the year for the Wildcats ? Albers notched his sixth quality start (6+ IP, 3 or fewer runs) and second straight ? Kentucky turned three double plays in the first four innings ? J.P. Lowen threw out a would-be base stealer for the 11th time this year ? Lowen extended his hitting streak to a career-best seven ? Lowen has four multi-hit games in his last five.
Kentucky 7, Arkansas 1
May 01, 2005
at Lexington, Ky.
Arkansas – 000 000 100 – 1 7 3 (33-13, 9-12 SEC)
Kentucky – 000 502 00X – 7 7 1 (23-20, 5-15 SEC)
Pitchers: Arkansas – Land; Smith(6). Kentucky – A. Albers.
Win-A. Albers(4-4) Loss-Land(1-2) T-2:17 A-371
HR Arkansas – Parker (9).
Land faced 2 batters in the 6th.
