Logue, UK Pitching Staff Exceeding Expectations

Heading into the 2017 season, there were a number of questions about the Kentucky baseball weekend pitching rotation. After losing Zack Brown, Dustin Beggs and Kyle Cody, the pitchers who made all of the weekend starts for the Wildcats last season, new head coach Nick Mingione and new pitching coach Jimmy Belanger had to basically start from scratch.

To say that they have been successful in that process would be a huge understatement. Kentucky is among the SEC leaders in ERA (fourth), opponents’ batting average (third), hits allowed (third), runs allowed (fourth), earned runs allowed (third), walks allowed (second) in 2017.

This season’s weekend staff, made up of Sean Hjelle, Zach Logue and Justin Lewis, knew that not much was expected of them this season, and they have taken advantage of that fact.

“We absolutely take a lot of pride, we had a little chip on our shoulder because that was the big question mark, the pitching staff coming into this year,” Logue said. “We’ve taken that little bit of momentum and run with it.”

After pitching as a mid-week starter last season, Logue has thrived in the weekend rotation in 2017. On Saturday, the junior lefty from Mason, Ohio, earned his fifth win of the season, allowing just one run in a career-high eight innings, as No. 16 Kentucky earned a 7-4 win over 22nd-ranked Vanderbilt at Cliff Hagan Stadium. 

With his effort on Saturday, Logue lowered his season ERA to 2.22, and he now ranks sixth on UK’s career list for ERA (minimum 75 innings pitched) with a 3.16 mark.

Mingione is proud not only of Logue and his other pitchers, but of how they have responded to the coaching staff.

“The thing I’m most proud of about our pitching staff is that we trained a bunch of guys to be starters,” Mingione said. “These guys took that and ran with it. The four guys we’re using right now have done a tremendous job. When people started questioning, that really got them going. They took it personal and our starting pitching has given us a chance about every game we’re thrown in this year.”

After falling to nationally-ranked North Carolina in his first start of the season, Logue has now earned a victory in five of his last six starts, with one no-decision. In Saturday’s effort, he allowed just five hits, walked just one while striking out seven, tying his career high in punchouts.

“Early on, we were able to get some outs with the fastball, then later in the game, we mixed in a lot more sliders to keep them off balance,” Logue said of Saturday’s performance.

Mingione was very happy for Logue as well.

“I thought he threw the ball really well,” Mingione said. “I loved the way he competed, the way he carried himself. He did what he’s done basically every start out, he gave us a chance to win. I was happy for Zach because he works his butt off. He’s what we would call a rock.”

With the win, Kentucky claimed the series against Vanderbilt for the first time since 2009. The Wildcats are now 7-1 in the SEC, the best conference start for Kentucky since 1992. And if Kentucky is able to sweep Vandy on Sunday, it will be the Wildcats’ first three-game sweep of the Commodores since 2000.

And if the Wildcats continue to play this well, a large portion of the credit will go to the pitching staff.