Luke Lawrence Shines with Three Hits, Three RBI

Kentucky coach Nick Mingione has preached to his club how razor thin the margin for error is at the Wildcats’ level of collegiate baseball and they got another hard lesson in a 9-3 loss to Xavier on Tuesday night at Kentucky Proud Park.

The Cats were unable to turn a pair of double plays, made an error and saw a flare turn into a triple when a diving catch attempt came up short, all of which led to multiple runs as the Musketeers sent the Cats (15-8) to their sixth loss in eight games.

Still, UK had its chances. Trailing 6-0 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Cats scored a pair and had the bases loaded with one out but a strikeout and foul out ended the threat.

Despite the final score, UK did have its bright spots. Junior IF Luke Lawrence went 3-for-3 and drove in three runs, both tying UK career highs. He added a hit by pitch and a double. Freshman IF Tyler Bell also had a hit to extend his reached safely streak to all 23 games to open his collegiate career.

 

NOTES

• Kentucky is 15-8 (2-4 SEC) on the season.
• UK has been hit by a pitch 46 times in the last 14 games.
• UK is 24-4 in its past 28 midweek games.
• UK Coach Nick Mingione is in his ninth season at the helm and now owns a 278-172 career record.
  • Mingione now is the second-winningest coach in school history.
  • UK is 145-23 vs. non-Power Four opponents under Coach Mingione.
  • UK is 110-43 in the month of March under Coach Mingione.
  • Mingione now is 4-2 vs. Xavier.
• Freshman IF Tyler Bell had a hit to extend his reached base streak to all 23 career games,
• Junior IF Luke Lawrence went 3-for-3 with three RBI, a double and an HBP.
  • The hits and RBI both tied UK career highs.
  • He now has seven multi-hit and multi-RBI games.
• Junior UTL/RHP James McCoy pitched 0.2 scoreless innings.
  • He has allowed only one run in 11 career appearances.

 

ON DECK

Kentucky travels to Texas A&M this weekend. Game 1 of the series is on Friday at 7 p.m. ET. It will be on the SEC Network+ and radio will be carried by the UK Sports Network.