Familiar Issues Surface in SEC Tournament Defeat

HOOVER, Ala. – All of Kentucky’s season-long bugaboos formed an all-too-familiar outcome on the first day on the Southeastern Conference Tournament as it was unable to hold a three-run lead over the second half of the game and dropped an 8-5 decision to Vanderbilt.

The Wildcats now are 31-21 overall and will wait six days for their NCAA Tournament fate.

UK did just about everything right for five innings as it extended out to a 4-1 advantage. The Cats got a run in the first inning on a Tyler Bell double and Luke Lawrence RBI single. Bell added a monster solo home run in his next at bat before Carson Hansen answered a Vanderbilt run with a solo home run of his own after another Lawrence RBI.

Meanwhile, ace Jaxon Jelkin was cruising through 5.2 before the randomness of baseball kicked in. UK was unable to squeeze a third strike foul tip that would have ended the inning, which turned into a walk. The Commodores the had four consecutive singles – three of which were well-placed ground balls through the infield and two with two strikes – that leveled the score at four. A throwing error on a routine grounder then allowed the go-ahead run to score.

Vanderbilt added three more in the eighth as Alex Kranzler pitch 4.1 innings of one-hit baseball to earn the win.

NOTES

• Kentucky is 31-21 on the season, 13-17 in SEC play.
• UK Coach Nick Mingione is in his 10th season at the helm and now owns a 324-213 career record.
  • Mingione is the second-winningest coach in school history.
  • Mingione is 126-141 in SEC games.
  • Mingione now is 8-21 vs. Vanderbilt.
• IF Luke Lawrence went 2-for-3 with two RBI, a HBP and a double.
  • He has 135 hits in his two-year career, moving him 40th place on the all-time chart.
    • He now has 255 career hits at the Division I level, a top 15 mark amongst active players.
  • He has reached safely in 53 of his past 55 games.
  • He has 23 multi-hit games this season and 44 at Kentucky.
• OF Carson Hansen went 2-for-4 with a run, a RBI and a solo home run..
  • He has homered in back-to-back games.
• IF Tyler Bell went 2-for-4 with two runs, an RBI, a double and a home run.
  • He double in his first AB before homering in his second.

ON DECK

UK awaits its NCAA Tournament fate.