Kentucky Wildcats Baseball: Bat Cats Go 2-0 Mid-Week Led by Littrell

Wow! That is honestly all I have to say about the Bat Cats play this week it was amazing. The Bat Cats won both of their mid-week games this week one against Morehead State and the other against Eastern Michigan. It looks as if the Wildcats bats are finally come to life defeating MSU 12-3 and 5-2 over EMU.

The MSU game on Tuesday which was a 20-hit game for the Cats, was a chance to showcase what three of the guys could do with the bat. Third baseman Thomas McCarthy, second baseman Matt Reida and outfielder Chad Wright recorded three hits each in this game. This was an important swing of the Bat Cats coming off a 0-3 weekend on the road and gave them a little momentum for this early part of the season. These guys was not the only ones who got offensive going, they also received performance from the leadoff spot in Neiko Johnson, shortstop Taylor Black. Johnson went 2-for-2 with a run, while Black went 2-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored.
The Bat Cats got on the board early and often putting up 3 runs in the first, 1 in the third, 1 in the sixth, 3 in the seventh and 4 in the eighth.

Kentucky put freshman right-hander Jonathan Paquet on hill for his first collegiate start. Paquet went 3.0 innings giving up six hit and two runs. This isn’t bad for a first start; he left the game with the Cats leading 4-2 and handed the ball over to Walter Wijas. Wijas(1-0) pitched a solid 3.2 innings of shutout ball and enough to give him the win. He gave up three hits and two walks while striking out three.

On Wednesday the Bat Cats finally opened up play at home at Cliff Hagan Stadium against Eastern Michigan. They put freshman southpaw Corey Littrell on mound and boy did he live up to the hype that was said about him. Littrell carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning before giving up two hits and two runs in 6.1 innings of play. This was the freshman that so many people were excited about coming in talking about his solid pitching. Litterell (1-1) had an amazing night only giving up two walks both of which was on full counts and striking out three, while only throwing 77 pitches, 51 was on target in the strike zone.

Littrell handed the ball over to Trevor Gott after his back to back hits. Gott pitched 1.2 innings of shutout ball giving up one hit and two walks, while fanning four. For the final inning Jordan Cooper was called to close out the game and was awarded his first career save. Cooper is traditionally a starter but he pitched a solid inning against the minimum three batters to get the save.

The offense continued from the night before as they had 10 hits, and forced four walks and even a hit by pitch. Again the Bat Cats got an amazing night out of Black who went 2-for-2 with two runs, with one RBI, a walk and receiving the hit by pitch. First baseman Braden Kapteyn and catcher Luke Maile couldn’t allow Black to have all the fun. They also went for two hits as well. The Wildcats finished the game with five runs two from Black, one from Kapteyn, one from McCarthy, and one from Lucas Witt.

Next up for the Bat Cats is the University of Illinois-Chicago(0-4), they will play at three game series at Cliff Hagan. With UIC having such a poor start to the season the Bat Cats should easily continue their win streak. The series starts today, granted no rain outs, at 4 PM. This will put Taylor Rogers the Lefty sophomore who currently owns a 0-0 record with 3.00 ERA against right hander Joey Begel who currently owns a 0-1 record with an 8.53 ERA. The series will continue on with Alex Meyer on the Mound with who owns a 0-1 record and a 1.29 ERA up against RHP Charlie Weinberg who also holds a 0-1 record with a 6.00 ERA. The final weekend match up brings Cooper back up who was pushed back a couple of starts since his save on Wednesday. Cooper holds a 0-0 record with an 11.25 ERA against Matt Salemi with a 0-1 record and 1.80 ERA. This should be a fun weekend of baseball granted mother nature allows it to happen. Everyone should go out to Cliff Hagan and enjoy some baseball, tickets for games are $5 bucks for Adults and $2 bucks for kids and Parking is free.

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