Scott Campbell Jr., Braxton Van Cleave Continue Recent Surge

COLUMBIA, S. Car. – Kentucky continued its run of Murphy’s Law in recent weeks, falling behind early and being unable to catch up in a 9-4 defeat at South Carolina on Saturday afternoon.

UK dropped to 26-15 overall and 8-12 in the Southeastern Conference.

An injury-riddled roster led to Oliver Boone making his first career start in blue on the mound and his defense did not do him any favors in the first inning, making a pair of errors that led to two unearned runs. South Carolina pushed its lead to 5-0 through four before the Cats scored a pair in the fifth inning.

UK drew within 6-4 an inning later on solo home runs by freshman Braxton Van Cleave and a surging Scott Campbell Jr. but could not inch any closer. Campbell also added a double and his eighth outfield assist when he skillfully played a ball off the left field wall and easily threw out the batter trying to stretch his hit into a double.

With Nate Harris still sidelined this weekend, the Cats will turn to Connor Mattison in Sunday’s series finale.

NOTES

• Kentucky is 26-15 on the season, 8-12 in SEC play.
• UK Coach Nick Mingione is in his 10th season at the helm and now owns a 319-207 career record.
  • Mingione is the second-winningest coach in school history.
  • Mingione is 121-136 in SEC games.
    • He is 50-81 in road SEC games.
  • Mingione now is 13-16 vs. South Carolina.
  • Mingione is 26-17 vs. teams from South Carolina.
• IF Luke Lawrence had a hit and a walk.
  • He has 120 hits in his two-year career, moving him into 49th place on the all-time chart.
  • He has reached safely in 43 of his past 44 games.
• OF Scott Campbell Jr. went 2-for-4 with two runs, a double and solo home run.
  • He registered his eighth outfield throwing assist of the season as well.
• OF Braxton Van Cleave hit a solo home run.
  • It’s his third career home run, all in the past six games.
  • Six of his eight career hits have gone for extra bases.
• OF Jayce Tharnish has a hit in 16 of his past 17 games.
  • He has reached safely in 19 consecutive games.

ON DECK

UK continues its series at South Carolina on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET. It will air on the SEC Network and the contest can be heard on UK Sports Network/630 WLAP.