Kentucky Baseball played with fire, and the team nearly got burned. Nick Mingione had starter Jaxon Jelkin come in and complete a save against No. 10 Arkansas on the regular season's last weekend. That threw Kentucky's rotation for a loop, but the Cats picked up the win regardless.
Mingione had to hope that was enough to get the Cats into the postseason, because his team lost the next two games to Arkansas and then the opening game of the SEC Tournament to Vanderbilt.
Kentucky, though, scrapped through and are being sent to the Morgantown, West Virginia regional as one of the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament. The baseball team must win three games, but what waits for them in Morgantown? A buzzsaw named Chris Levonas.
The Cats Are Seeing Double
Last season, the Bat Cats made the Clemson regional, but the first game was against West Virginia, which they'd lose before getting all the way back to the regional final.
The Mountaineers would then end the Cats' season 13-12 after Kentucky blew two separate 5-run leads. That's a memory the team would rather not dig up.
Now, the Cats will be in Morgantown, as West Virginia earned the 16-seed. But Kentucky will have to wait for potential revenge as they open things up this Friday against Wake Forest.
Wake Forest's Diamond Deacon
The Demon Deacons have a ton of talent, led by Luke Costello who leads the team with 17 HR, 61 RBI, and a .680 SLG. But he isn't the only offensive weapon, as Kade Lewis and Dalton Wentz have both hit over 10 home a piece. Adversely, though, Wake Forest has committed 59 errors on the year; that's exactly what Kentucky thrives on.
The Cats love stealing bases, playing small ball, and can crack defenses that struggle to make plays. It's actually as good a matchup for Kentucky's offense as you could have asked for.
The problem? Wake Forest is a heavy power team that will put runs on the board; outside of Jaxon Jelkin, Kentucky has been pretty erratic when it comes to pitching.
Wake Forest will likely start Chris Levonas, who is, again, a buzzsaw. He has a 2.90 ERA, an absurd 110 strikeouts in just 68.1 innings, and a .175 batting average against. But the rest of the pitching staff is hittable. If Wake Forest decides to try to save Levonas for game two, Kentucky will have an even better chance of pulling off the upset.
Either way, things get underway Friday at noon on ESPN2. You can't win the thing if you don't make it, and the Cats made it. Now, they have to prove they can be consistent enough on both sides of the ball to take it home.
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