It has been a rough conference run for Nick Mingione and Kentucky Baseball thus far. Since sweeping Alabama to open SEC play, the Cats had lost 6 straight series prior to their current fixture. The Bat Cats just couldn't get anything going prior to No. 24 24 Tennessee visiting Kentucky Proud Park. Suddenly, the Cats found some momentum - and then some.
Friday night, Kentucky sprung on Tennessee, scoring nine runs before the Vols finally pushed one across the plate in the 8th inning. Kentucky's Ben Cleaver pitched a gem, too, going seven innings and striking out four. He allowed just 4 hits.
That offensive output continued last night, on Saturday, when Kentucky mercilessly run-ruled the Vols.
Kentucky Getting Hot in All Facets
This season, Kentucky is hitting just .282 while holding opponents to a .242 average. The Cats have scored 317 runs and allowed only 242. Yet, Kentucky is under .500 in SEC play largely because they can't seem to sync up. When the pitching holds up, the team can't plate enough runs, and vice versa. It's an odd imbalance.
But that wasn't the case on Saturday night. Jaxon Jelkin had arguably the best outing of his Kentucky career, as he pitched eight innings and had 11 strikeouts. He probably would have pitched through the 9th inning, too, if only Kentucky's offense had allowed it.
In college baseball, if a team leads by at least 10 runs after seven innings (or 6.5 innings if the home team is winning), the game is called. Kentucky scored three in the 6th and four in the 7th, which pushed the score to 11-2. And then, in the bottom of the 8th, the Cats tacked on a 12th run to win their first SEC series since that opening sweep of the Tide.
Turning Things Around
Hudson Brown, Tyler Bell, Caeden Cloud, and Ethan Hindle all had home runs on Derby Day as Kentucky used the deep ball to knock off the Vols early. The series win breaks Kentucky's SEC duck of six straight conference series losses.
If Kentucky wins the final game against Tennessee today, the team will get back to .500 in the conference, at 12-12, with only six SEC games remaining before postseason play begins.
Considering Tennessee is ahead of them in the RPI rankings right now, a sweep would be crucial for Nick Mingione and a Kentucky team on the apparent border of a real turnaround. You can catch the series-ending duel on SEC Network+ starting at 1 p.m. ET.
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