‘We want to play good teams.’ Off to fast start, UK baseball faces first major test.
The Kentucky baseball team’s perfect start has come to an end.
The Wildcats recorded their best opening to a season since 2012 with a 7-0 start that featured three walk-off wins in four games, but that winning streak came to an end Tuesday.
The Cats suffered a home midweek loss to Western Kentucky, before Wednesday’s win over Evansville.
Now with an 8-1 record, head coach Nick Mingione and Kentucky are preparing for their most difficult test of the season so far: A three-game weekend series at Kentucky Proud Park against TCU, an annual NCAA baseball power that was a top 16 national seed for last year’s NCAA baseball tournament.
Here’s how Kentucky got ready for its biggest series of the season so far:
Tuesday: WKU 7, UK 5
WKU freshman Ty Batusich’s go-ahead two-run single in the top of the ninth inning relegated Kentucky to its first defeat of the season, while giving WKU its first win over UK since March 2016.
Kentucky was 1-of-14 at the plate with runners in scoring position Tuesday, stranding 13 runners on base. By comparison, WKU was 5-of-10 on offense with runners on the base paths.
“This team is not soft, they are tough and we saw some tough things because we don’t want them to happen again,” Mingione said Wednesday in reviewing the Western Kentucky game. “We didn’t make pitches . . . we didn’t have the at-bats . . . but like I told our guys, we’re just here to learn.”
Despite the defeat, the game offered an encouraging sign for a young Wildcats pitcher.
Sophomore Seth Logue drew the midweek starting assignment for the second straight week.
On Feb. 23 against Bellarmine, Logue went five innings, allowing two runs (only one of them earned) and striking out six batters.
He was dialed in again Tuesday, going six innings while allowing three runs (all from home runs) and striking out nine batters, finding success with an elevated fastball and breaking ball.
This was the first time this season a UK starting pitcher threw six innings.
For the season, Logue has struck out 17 batters and allowed 11 hits in 11 innings pitched, with just four earned runs and two walks.
“It’s been really good, just trying to get my feet wet a little bit . . . every time I get out there I just get more and more comfortable,” Logue said. “It’s another step in the right direction for me.”
The second-year UK pitcher has impressed in his first two starts for the Wildcats after appearing in 12 games last season, all out of the bullpen.
During the summer, Logue pitched for the Waynesboro Generals in the Valley Baseball League, a college summer league in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia.
He started four times for Waynesboro, and credited that experience with helping him get comfortable in a starting role.
“That was really big for me, it kind of helped me figure out how I work mentally and physically and what I needed to do to prepare mentally and physically every week,” Logue said.
Midweek college baseball games are important for a variety of reasons, including the opportunities they present younger players like Logue to impress in game action.
What has Mingione learned about Logue after two solid midweek starts?
“His preparation is phenomenal. Whether it be in his catch play or the weight room, he does a tremendous job in his preparation,” Mingione said. “It says a lot about him.”
What does Logue think he’s shown to Mingione?
“I’m going to throw strikes and I’m going to make them hit it,” Logue said. “I think I can punch guys out, I can get weak fly-outs and weak ground balls. I can do a lot of different things.”
Wednesday: UK 5, Evansville 4
Five of Kentucky’s nine games this season have been decided by two or fewer runs, and Wednesday’s meeting with the Purple Aces was one of them.
UK trailed 3-1 and 4-3, but did all of its scoring in the first four innings. UK’s bullpen pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings to put the Cats back in the win column.
The highlight was a return to the mound for fifth-year left-handed pitcher Mason Hazelwood.
Hazelwood made five starts for Kentucky last season before needing Tommy John surgery. In his six total appearances for UK last season, Hazelwood was electric, going 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA in 25 1/3 innings.
He wasn’t cleared to pitch in UK’s first series of the season at Jacksonville State, but Hazelwood has been available for UK’s last six games.
Mingione said cold temperatures kept Hazelwood out of action in previous home games, but his return finally came in the third inning against Evansville.
Hazelwood’s first pitching appearance since March 27, 2021, lasted two batters and 10 pitches, seven of which were strikes.
“The first two pitches I was a little shaky just getting the butterflies out of my stomach. But after that it feels like I haven’t missed a beat,” Hazelwood said. “There’s always fears in my head. I’ve seen people come back from (Tommy John surgery) and their accuracy is all over the place, but I knew with how I’ve been throwing in my bullpens and things like that that I was going to come out as good, if not better, than I was before.”
Hazelwood forced a pop fly to left field that was dropped against his first batter faced, and got a groundout to senior first baseman Jake Plastiak against the second batter he faced to end the top of the third.
Mingione said Hazelwood was going to face a maximum of two batters in his return.
“You can call me silly, but honestly I had goosebumps coming off the mound,” Hazelwood said of returning to the dugout with a wide grin on his face.
Plastiak continues hitting streak
Plastiak is the lone UK player to record a hit in all nine games this season.
“A leader is someone who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. That last part is sometimes the hardest,” Mingione said of Plastiak. “You’ve got to be able to show the way. So you’ve got to have a certain skill level, and he’s got it. If he didn’t have that skill level, I don’t know how much (his teammates) would listen to him.”
Outfielder Oraj Anu has a hit in all seven games in which he’s appeared.
Up next
The Cats will play TCU on Friday at 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday each at 1 p.m. The Horned Frogs are 7-1 this season and are recognized as a top-20 team in several major polls.
“We want to play good teams, our league is full of them,” Mingione said. “We’re going to get another good test this weekend.”
