In a battle between aces Alex Lange outshined Sean Hjelle, leading his Tigers to a 10-0 win, in a seven-inning run-ruled shortened over Kentucky.
It was a cold night in Hoover, Alabama. Both on the field and off for the Kentucky Baseball Wildcats. It started off with poor defense, finished with poor pitching.
After recording the first out of the inning, Beau Jordan hit a chopper over the mound. Hjelle reacted to the ball quickly and fielded it cleanly. However, when he turned to throw to first for the second out the base was vacant. First basemen Evan White had broken for the ball on contact.
FINAL: No. 6 LSU 10, No. 8 UK 0. W - Lange. L - Hjelle. Cats will face South Carolina in an elimination game on Friday at 4 pm. pic.twitter.com/WNnBrztJzO
— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) May 26, 2017
LSU loaded the bases with one out before the defense would once again come back to haunt the Wildcats. With the bases loaded and one out, shortstop Kramer Robertson laced a potential double play ball to Kentucky third basemen Tyler Marshall. The ball went off Marshall’s glove and into left field to score the first two runs of the game.
The Tigers got three more hits from Cole Freeman, Antoine Duplantis and Greg Deichmann, all RBI-singles to extend the lead 5-0 after the second.
Hjelle, who finished the night giving up 10 runs on 11 hits while striking out 10 in five innings, would settle down striking out five of six battle in the third and fourth.
LSU would close out the game and Hjelle’s night in the fifth. Hjelle would surrender three hits and a ground out to extend the lead to 7-0 before Robertson finished the game off. With two out and two on Robertson jumped on a fastball up in the zone and sent it out for his seventh home run.
.@KramerR3 with an absolute MOONSHOT: https://t.co/O6B8l46l6U @LSUbaseball 10-0 | Top 6th pic.twitter.com/6EBLNh0edc
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) May 26, 2017
Kentucky Baseball’s offense blanketed by Lange and LSU defense.
The Wildcats weren’t able to do much on Lange tonight. The junior ace for the Tigers finished with a complete game giving up zero runs, six hits and striking out seven.
The offense didn’t completely no-show. Three times they smoked the ball into the gaps in deep right and left-center field. Zach Watson, freshman center fielder, got amazing jumps on the ball and read them perfectly.
“I feel like we are crushing balls. There is a part of me I don’t want them to do anything different,” said Head Coach Nick Mingione before the fifth inning on the SEC Network. “I mean we are hitting laser beams.”
After the big fifth inning though Lange settled in and Kentucky look depleted. The Wildcats only managed two more hits the rest of the way and were never able to string multiple hits together.
What’s Next:
Fortunately for the Wildcats both the SEC Championship and a National Seed are in play. Both would be first for the Kentucky baseball program.
The Wildcats will face the South Carolina Gamecocks later today at 4:00PM ET on the SEC Network in an elimination game. This will be the second matchup of the tournament between the Wildcat and Gamecocks. Kentucky beat South Carolina 7-2 in the second round. The winner will advance to the semifinals.