Cats Facing Familiar Situation After Friday Setback
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The Kentucky baseball team found itself in a must-win situation last weekend in the Lexington Regional. After losing to N.C. State on Saturday at Cliff Hagan Stadium, Kentucky faced three straight elimination games. And on three occasions, the Wildcats came through, ultimately winning an NCAA Baseball Regional for the first time.
Now, the Wildcats find themselves in a very similar situation.
Kentucky dropped the opening game of the NCAA Baseball Super Regional on Friday, falling to Louisville 5-2 at Jim Patterson Stadium in the Derby City. The two teams meet again on Saturday at noon ET (ESPN2 or the Watch ESPN app), with Kentucky trying to force a decisive game three on Sunday, and Louisville trying to complete the sweep to earn a bid in the College World Series.
For Kentucky, it’s familiar territory, facing an elimination game for the fourth time in the last six days. The question is, can the Wildcats build upon what they learned last weekend?
“Absolutely, we can learn from it,” said UK sophomore catcher Kole Cottam. “We’ve done it before. Pretty recently, in fact, so that’s kind of going to help us and motivate us. We know what we have to do. We have to play one inning at a time, one pitch at a time and everything, hopefully, will work out.”
Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione also believes that his team’s experience from last weekend will be beneficial for the rest of this weekend.
“Everything that happened last weekend, to have our backs against the wall and to have to win three straight games, that’s never been done before (at UK),” Mingione said. “We’re going to have to try to do something tomorrow that’s never been done before. Anytime you have experience in doing something, it helps. When you haven’t done something before, it makes it that much more difficult. Our players, there’s no question they’ll be able to draw back from their experiences that we had this past weekend.”
Louisville got on the board first in Friday’s game, scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. Devin Mann singled to right field, scoring Logan Taylor to make it 1-0. Mann then scored on an RBI groundout by All-American Drew Ellis to give the Cards a 2-0 advantage.
The Cards extended the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning when Ellis hit a three-run homer to left field, making it 5-0 Louisville.
Kentucky got its two runs in the ninth inning. Junior Evan White hit a solo home run to lead off the inning to get the Wildcats on the board. Later in the frame, Tyler Marshall singled up the middle to score Riley Mahan and to cut the lead to 5-2. But the Wildcats would get no closer.
Now, Kentucky will turn to SEC Pitcher of the Year Sean Hjelle to save the Wildcats’ season. The sophomore right-hander is 11-3 overall and won two games in the regional last week. Hjelle will face Louisville ace Brendan McKay, the Baseball America National Player of the Year, in what shapes up to be a pitcher’s duel.
“Brendan McKay is going to be one of the top couple of picks in the (MLB) Draft,” Mingione said. “Sean Hjelle, the SEC Pitcher of the Year. It’s going to be a very, very special game with two quality arms.”
For the Wildcats, it will be another opportunity to perform with their backs against the wall. And after last weekend, it’s a situation for which Kentucky is much more prepared.
