HOOVER, Ala. — The opportunities, as they have been for much of the season’s second half, were there for Kentucky. After a 4-1 loss to Ole Miss in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Tuesday, those opportunities are what the Wildcats were thinking about.”The biggest issue the last seven weeks has just been getting the hit at a key moment,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said.The seventh inning was particularly frustrating. After chasing Ole Miss starter Mike Mayers, UK loaded the bases with one out on an infield single by Zack Storm. Micheal Thomas followed with a pop-up to second and Kyle Barrett grounded out to end the threat, accounting for three of the eight runners the Cats left on base as they were eliminated in the conference tournament.The story has been all-too-familiar since UK (30-25) sprinted to a 22-6 start. Since then, the bats have fallen silent at all the wrong times and the Cats are 8-19 during that stretch. Most of the fans in attendance at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium were watching Kentucky for the first time, but they got a pretty clear picture of what the last two months have been like.”You kind of saw a large part of the second half of the season for us today,” Henderson said. “That’s kind of what it is and has been unfortunately. They fought well. At times, we pitched extremely well. … But we just didn’t have enough offense. We couldn’t sustain anything offensively over a period of time to really get out of where we were.”Because of that, UK will be reduced to hoping when they watch the selection show next Monday. UK is ranked No. 38 in the RPI and boasts 12 wins over fellow top-40 teams, but its 11 SEC wins and uneven finish leave the Cats in perilous NCAA Tournament position.

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