July 7, 2009

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky baseball head coach Gary Henderson and standout right-handed pitcher Alex Meyer will be participating in a live chat on Cat Scratches, the official blog of UK Athletics, Wednesday from 11:45-12:30 p.m. ET.

Cat Scratches will host the live chat on UKathletics.com Wednesday, part of the weekly “Wildcat Wednesdays” interactive chat that allows fans to communicate directly with Kentucky student-athletes and coaches.

Meyer is coming off a successful freshman season that saw the 6-foot-8 right-hander rank 11th in the Southeastern Conference in strikeouts, fanning 80 in just 59.2 innings. The Greensburg, Ind., native, and 2008 Aflac High School All-American came to UK as part of the best recruiting class in school annals, ranking fourth in the NCAA.

Meyer made 13 appearances and 11 starts during his freshman season, securing a spot in the dangerous UK weekend rotation in 2009 that set a new school strikeout record. Meyer tallied a 5.73 ERA and a save, allowing only 53 hits and a .239 opponent batting average. Meyer ranked eighth in the SEC in opposing batting average (.239) and eighth in pickoffs (three). Rated as the second-best freshman in college baseball entering the 2009 season by Baseball America, Meyer led the SEC with the fewest hits allowed (53), the fewest doubles allowed (three) and the fewest triples allowed (zero), among qualifying conference pitchers (1 IP per team game).

Henderson completed his first season at the helm of the program, after helping direct UK to two NCAA regional appearances and its first SEC Championship in school history as the recruiting coordinator and pitching coach. Henderson’s first recruiting class as head coach included Meyer and fellow highly-touted freshmen standouts Andy Burns, Chad Wright, Braden Kapteyn, Cory Farris, Michael Williams and Sean Bouthilette. In 2008, Henderson’s pitching staff led the SEC with a 3.71 ERA, the only sub 4.00 team ERA in the conference.