BEAUMONT, Texas ? Kentucky senior Craig Snipp pitched his first career complete game to carry the Wildcats to a 6-1 victory over Lamar on a misty Saturday evening at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
Snipp, a Louisville native, earned the starting nod after hurling six shutout innings in a winning relief appearance against UT-San Antonio last weekend. He bettered himself on Saturday by going the distance and scattering six hits. He threw 133 pitches while striking out eight and walking four.
Prior to the contest, Snipp?s career highs for innings pitched and pitches thrown were six and 100, respectively. He easily bested those marks and only got stronger as the game went along.
After striking out two in the first four innings, he fanned six in the next four, including one with runners on second and third and one out in the sixth. That out was followed by a great snag on a line drive by Michael Bertram that saved two runs from scoring and preserved UK?s 3-1 lead.
Sean Coughlin made it 4-1 the next inning with a mammoth home run to straight away center field. The laser shot easily cleared the fence and ricocheted off the batter?s high 35 feet above the fence. It was the second home run in three starts for the junior catcher.
The Wildcats took advantage of Cardinal mistakes to take a 1-0 lead in the first. Antone DeJesus extended his hit streak to 12 games with a leadoff single and took second on a balk. After a wild pitch on a strikeout allowed Brian Hastings to reach, DeJesus came in on Coughlin?s single.
With the aid of the wild pitch, Lamar starter Derrick Gordon struck out four batters in the first frame. He finished with seven Ks in 5 2/3 innings of work. He gave up just three hits and walked three. He left in the sixth with the game tied 1-1, but was charged for both runs on Collin Cowgill?s two-run double off Cody Williams to take the loss. The base knock stretched Cowgill?s hit streak to five games.
The Cardinals threatened a number of times, but could never completely solve Snipp. They went down in order only once, in the fifth, but Snipp made the big pitches when he needed them. Three times in the final five innings, he closed out the inning with a strikeout.
The game was delayed six hours and 45 minutes from its original start time of 2 p.m. ET due to relentless rain in the area. Once it started, a misty rain fell off on and on throughout and standing water remained on the warning track.
However, the Wildcats overcame the conditions to secure the win. Kentucky wraps up the weekend against Michigan State on Sunday at Noon ET. The Spartans led 8-0 when their game was suspended in the third inning Saturday and held the lead going into the seventh. However, the conditions wreaked havoc on them as they gave up three in the seventh and five in the eighth before losing on a walk-off home run to Arkansas State.
