Kentucky baseball season likely finished after loss in SEC Tournament opener
The Kentucky baseball team dropped its opener in the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Tuesday, a 4-1 loss to Florida that will almost certainly end the Wildcats’ 2021 season.
Miscues and missed opportunities marred the opening innings for the Cats, who likely needed to make a serious run this week to be considered for the NCAA Tournament field. Instead, UK fell in the single-elimination portion of the SEC Tournament, dropping to 29-23 on the season.
Kentucky left 11 runners in scoring position Tuesday, and an additional runner was thrown out at home. The Cats also committed two errors early in the game. UK starter Sean Harney gave up four hits and hit four Florida batters over 4⅓ innings. He surrendered all four Florida runs, yet only one of those runs was earned due to the UK errors.
UK was right on the edge of the NCAA Tournament bubble as recently as two weeks ago, but the Cats finished 3-9 over their final four SEC series, dropping all of those series. They were swept by South Carolina two weeks ago and lost two of three at Vanderbilt to end the regular season last weekend.
Kentucky finished 12-18 in SEC play and entered the league tournament as the No. 11 seed.
The Cats were not listed in the NCAA Tournament field in either of the most recent projections from D1Baseball.com or Baseball America. D1Baseball didn’t have Kentucky listed among its “first five out” coming into this week, and Baseball America didn’t have UK among its “first eight out” in its most recent projection last week.
The NCAA selection show is Monday. Coach Nick Mingione was realistic about UK’s chances after Tuesday’s loss.
“Obviously, we didn’t win today, so we don’t have any more opportunities to state our case,” he said. “So our résumé is what it is at this point today.”
Kentucky has not made the NCAA Tournament field since Mingione’s first year in 2017, when the Cats earned a spot as a regional host and ultimately advanced to the Super Regional, with Mingione winning national coach of the year honors that season.
The Cats missed the NCAA Tournament in 2018 and 2019, and last year’s postseason was canceled due to COVID-19.
UK announced in March that Mingione had signed a contract extension through the 2025 season.
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 1:52 PM.
