Under Nick Mingione, Kentucky baseball is all about pressure. They want to make you make mistakes and mentally grind you down. That happened again Tuesday night in Lexington when the Cats used a 5-run 5th inning to bust open a close game against Ball State.
Kentucky baseball's pressure pays off
With the Cats already a perfect 4-4 on the basepads and Tyler Bell broke for 2nd, he was safe without a throw. Hudson Brown got one down, and Ball State came home, but Luke Lawrence got under the tag. Scott Campbell then drove in Tyler Bell. After a fielder's choice, the Cats had runners on 1st and 2nd when Ryan Schwartz came to the plate.
Schwartz narrowly missed a home run, but the ball bounced about halfway up the wall, and it was good enough to clear the bases, and that was all the cushion that Kentucky would need.
The key to this whole inning was Kentucky's ability to just force errors; the Cardinals had 2 throwing errors in the inning.
Lefty Will Campbell got the midweek start and struggled with his command. The freshman 3 walks and 50 total pitches in 2.2 innings of work. But it was good enough to keep the Cats in the game until the offense woke up. The bullpen allowed just 3 hits.
The Cats would tack on a few insurance runs late and take the midweek game 10-3.
Kentucky baseball now looks to SEC play
Now the real schedule begins as SEC play kicks off Friday when Alabama comes to town. Kentucky wraps up the non-conference with a 15-2 record and 10 game winning streak.
Alabama will most likely come into this one with the same record; they currently have a 6-3 lead over Troy at home in the 7th.
The Crimson Tide will bring some pop to Kentucky Proud Park with Brady Neal and Luke Vaughn both sitting at 4 home runs. Neal is also really raking at the plate, hitting .403 and slugging .720
All games will be broadcast live on the SEC Network+ through the ESPN app.
Game 1: Friday, March 13th, 6:30 PM
Game 2: Saturday, March 14th, 2 PM
Game 3: Sunday, March 15th, 1 PM