May the Schwartz Be With You: Freshman Leads Kentucky Victory

Kentucky honored its Senior class in a pregame ceremony on Saturday before a freshman stole the show.

Ryan Schwartz delivered a career-best three hits and four RBI to lead UK to a series victory over No. 14 Oklahoma as the Wildcats claimed an 8-5 victory at sun-splashed Kentucky Proud Park.

The North Carolina native blistered an RBI single in the first, a triple in the third and then a game-sealing bases loaded double in the fifth. He was walked in his final at bat to come up just shy of the cycle. He also made seven putouts in right field.

With the victory the Cats moved to 27-20 overall and 12-14 in the Southeastern Conference, picked up a ninth win over a ranked opponent and continued to improve their postseason outlook. The Cats will go for a Mother’s Day at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Oklahoma scored a pair of first inning runs but had a third taken off the board when the SEC replay center upheld UK’s challenge that a runner tagging up from third base left too early. The boost of adrenaline bled over to UK’s half of the inning with the Cats scoring four runs to take the lead. It was 5-3 in the fifth inning before Schwartz’s bases clearing liner into the left field corner.

Lefty Ethan Walker earned his first save with three innings of one-hit baseball in which he struck out five.

NOTES

• Kentucky is 27-20 (12-14 SEC) on the season.
• UK has held a lead in 23 of 26 SEC games.
• UK now is 9-10 vs. ranked teams and owns 10 Quad 1 victories.
• UK has hit seven triples in its last five games.
• UK was hit by four pitches on the day and now have been hit 133 times in 2025.
  • It entered the weekend ranked third nationally.
  • UK set a new single-season school record for HBP.
  • The last three seasons now are the top three in school history and have totaled 382.
• UK Coach Nick Mingione is in his ninth season at the helm and now owns a 289-186 career record.
  • Mingione is the second-winningest coach in school history.
  • UK is 50-50 in the month of May under Coach Mingione.
  • Mingione now is 2-0 vs. Oklahoma.
• INF Tyler Bell now has reached base safely in 46 of 47 career games.
  • He has reached in 19 consecutive games.
• IF Patrick Herrera went 1-for-3 with two runs, two RBI and a walk.
  • He notched his 100^th career hit with a two-run triple in the first inning.
• UT Ryan Schwartz had a career day.
  • He went 3-for-3 with four RBI, a double, a triple and a walk.
  • He set career-highs in hits and RBI.
  • He has a 13-game reached safely streak.
• RHP Nic McCay moved to 5-0 on the season.
• LHP Ethan Walker earned his first save with three innings of one-hit ball. He struck out five.

 ON DECK

The Cats go for a sweep of No. 14 Oklahoma on Mother’s Day.. First pitch is at 1 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.