Kentucky Faces Indiana in Elimination Game on Sunday at 1:00
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Kentucky and Indiana met in a mid-week, non-conference game on May 9 at Cliff Hagan Stadium, a contest that the Wildcats won 5-2.
Those same two teams will square off on Sunday with much more on the line. The Cats and the Hoosiers will meet in an elimination game in the NCAA Baseball Tournament’s Lexington Regional at 1 p.m. at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
Kentucky (40-21) fell into the loser’s bracket with a 5-4 setback against N.C. State on Saturday. Indiana (34-23-2), which lost to N.C. State on Friday, beat Ohio 11-2 on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s contest.
Ironically, the pitching matchup on Sunday could be the same as it was on May 9. Kentucky will likely start freshman Zack Thompson, while Indiana will counter with either Brian Hobbie or Cal Krueger. Thompson and Hobbie were the starting pitchers in the May 9 game.
In that game, Thompson was outstanding. The Selma, Indiana, native pitched six innings, allowing just two runs and three hits while walking two and striking out a career-high 10 batters. Indiana’s runs came on solo home runs by Matt Lloyd and Luke Miller.
Lloyd gave Indiana a 1-0 lead in the top of the first with a solo homer to left-center field, but Kentucky answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Luke Becker got Kentucky on the board with a single to center field, scoring Tristan Pompey to tie the score at 1-1. The Wildcats took the lead for good later in the inning when junior catcher Troy Squires singled to left field, scoring Becker to make it 2-1.
Kentucky extended its lead in the second inning when junior first baseman Evan White doubled to right-center field, scoring Pompey to make it 3-1. Senior Zach Reks followed with a double of his own, scoring White to give Kentucky a 4-1 advantage.
Miller homered to right-center field in the fourth inning to cut Kentucky’s lead to 4-2. The score would remain that way until the seventh inning, when Pompey scored on a sacrifice fly by Reks to make it 5-2 Cats.
Hobbie lasted only one and two-third innings, giving up four earned runs and taking the loss in the game.
After Thompson departed, Kentucky got strong work out of the bullpen from freshman Chris Machamer and senior Logan Salow. Machamer went two innings, allowing just one hit while striking out four. Salow pitched the ninth inning, giving up just one hit and striking out one while earning his ninth save of the season.
The winner of Sunday’s first game will advance to the nightcap to face N.C. State once again. That game is set for 7 p.m. ET.
