Red-Hot Cottam Ignites Kentucky Offense on Wednesday

The Kentucky baseball team has had one of the best offenses in the country all season long. But in Wednesday’s SEC Tournament game against South Carolina, the Wildcats were in need of a boost. And that’s when Kentucky’s hottest hitter stepped up for his team.

With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Kentucky sophomore Kole Cottam crushed a Chad Morris pitch over the center field wall, giving Kentucky a lead they would never relinquish, as the Wildcats topped the Gamecocks 7-2.

“I was trying to keep my approach and stay right center and he threw a fast ball, kind of middle up, and I just hit it well,” Cottam said.

Cottam went 2-for-3 on Wednesday with a single and the big home run, extending a stretch of torrid hitting for the UK designated hitter. The sophomore had a huge series against Florida last weekend, collecting seven hits, including a homer and a pair of doubles. After Wednesday’s game, Cottam is now nine for his last 16 (.563), with two doubles, two homers, nine RBIs and four runs scored over the course of the last four games.

The Wildcats know that, when some players in the lineup struggle, someone else will be there to pick them up. Today, it was Cottam, who spoke about the team approach after today’s game.

“That’s what we pride ourselves on,” Cottam said of Kentucky’s team approach. “We try to pick each other up and be there for each other.”

At the beginning of the season, Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione knew he had a pair of players would could handle the team’s catching duties. Both Cottam and junior Troy Squires had proven their worth behind the plate for the Cats.

But as the 2017 season wore on, Cottam and Squires each defined their roles on the team, Cottam as a hitter and Squires as both a hitter and a defender. And, since both players were thriving in those roles, Mingione was forced to find a way to get both players in the lineup, a move that has paid huge dividends lately.

After Cottam gave Kentucky a 3-2 lead, Evan White put the game away with a two-out, three-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning, extending Kentucky’s lead to 6-2.

The Wildcats used three pitchers in the game, each throwing three innings. Starter Brad Schaenzer gave up a pair of runs in his three innings of work. Junior Zach Logue, the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, earned his seventh win of the season after giving up just two hits in three innings. And freshman Chris Machamer pitched the final three innings, allowing just one hit while earning his first career save.

Kentucky (39-18) won an SEC Tournament game for the first time since 2014. The 2017 Wildcats, who now have 19 wins against Top 50 RPI opponents, advance to a winner’s bracket game against either LSU or Missouri on Thursday night at approximately 9 p.m. ET.

“We just try to have fun. We try to be loose, but when we get between the lines, we take it as serious as anybody. We’re just trying to play our game.”

And, right now, Cottam is playing the game as well as anyone on the team.