'Unselfish' Jelkin Closes Thursday Win over Arkansas

Kentucky ace pitcher Jaxon Jelkin has been on a roll. In his last two starts, Jelkin has gone the distance, beating Tennessee at Kentucky Proud Park, then topping Florida in Gainesville on Saturday.

In the Florida game, Jelkin threw 128 pitches in a 4-2 win over the Gators. As the weekend rotations were announced for Kentucky’s series against Arkansas, Jelkin was bumped back to Saturday, a move that would give him the maximum amount of time to recover from a grueling outing against Florda.

But Jelkin is a competitor and he wants to help his team however he can. So, when he woke up on Thursday, he reached out to pitching coach Dan Roszel and offered something that no one expected.

“I woke up this morning and I kind of knew we needed a win tonight,” Jelkin said. “So I texted Coach Roszel and just told him, hey, I feel good. I can throw tonight if you guys need me.”

With the Cats holding a 4-2 lead in the eighth inning, UK head coach Nick Mingione called on Jelkin to come into the game. The right-hander pitched the final two innings, allowing one hit, one run and striking out two while registering his first career save in the 4-3 win. Mingione was surprised when he found out that Jelkin had made the offer to Roszel.

“There are times where the players think and do things that, quite frankly, catch you off guard,” Mingione said. “Coach Roszel said hey, Jaxon reached out to me and he feels great and if we need him to go tonight, we’ll use him.”

The UK head coach also liked how Jelkin put the needs of the team ahead of himself.

“Maybe one of the more unselfish moves that I can remember,” Mingione said. “Very unselfish and a win that, we know the magnitude of that win.”

Designated hitter Ethan Hindle echoed how unselfish it was of Jelkin to put the team first.

“We had Jelkin come in and he was very selfless to do that,” Hindle said. “That was really awesome.”

Hindle admitted that he was surprised to see Jelkin up in the bullpen.

“Yeah, I was surprised,” Hindle said. “When I saw zero (Jelkin) coming out of the bullpen, I was fired up. It’s awesome to see him pitch and then he comes in and closes out the game.”

Mingione marveled at how Jelkin was able to throw so many pitches on Saturday, yet have himself ready to go on Thursday night.

“The job that this guy has done with his body to even get in a position, no one will ever know,” Mingione said. “All the time and effort that’s gone into it.”

Jelkin was scheduled to start on Saturday, but Mingione said that, no matter how hard Jelkin tries to convince the UK staff to start him, he will not be on the mound at the beginning of that game.

“He will not start,” Mingione said. “It’s going to be really simple. It’s going to be two letters – N-O.”

Jelkin’s unselfishness got the Cats to 13 wins which, historically, has meant a bid in the NCAA Tournament. UK’s best pitcher put his team first and that should lead to a bid in the postseason.