Kentucky baseball’s pitching impresses, but Cats win only once over weekend
Despite impressive pitching performances in the first two games of the series, the Kentucky baseball team was unable to claim another home series victory against a top-level opponent.
Kentucky already recorded series wins at Kentucky Proud Park this season against TCU and Georgia — two nationally ranked teams — and the Wildcats were eyeing a third notable series win in Lexington with No. 10 Ole Miss in town this past weekend.
But Kentucky was only able to win the middle game of the three-game series.
Head coach Nick Mingione’s team excelled on the mound for the first 21 innings of the series, until things went sideways during Sunday’s series-deciding game.
The Wildcats are now 18-11 overall and 3-6 in Southeastern Conference games.
Here’s how the weekend went on the diamond for the Wildcats, ahead of a rivalry game at home against Louisville on Tuesday night.
Friday: Ole Miss wins 2-1
The weekend series between Ole Miss and Kentucky was anticipated to be a high-scoring affair. Entering Friday’s opening game, Ole Miss averaged 9.1 runs per game while Kentucky averaged 8.1.
But despite this, Friday’s game was a low-scoring affair that Ole Miss took by one run.
While UK managed only three hits, a platoon pitching effort impressed on the mound.
Last weekend, Kentucky lost junior starting pitcher Cole Stupp — the designated Friday night starter — for the remainder of the season due to injury. Stupp left the March 25 game against Georgia with a forearm injury.
For its first Friday night game of the season without Stupp, fifth-year left-handed pitcher Mason Hazelwood got the starting nod.
Hazelwood made five starts for Kentucky last season before needing Tommy John surgery, and had pitched four times for UK this season before Friday night, although none was for longer than one inning.
Hazelwood went two innings against Ole Miss, allowing two hits and one run, before UK’s bullpen took over and pitched well. Sophomore Ryan Hagenow (three innings), junior Tyler Guilfoil (2 1/3 innings) and graduate student Sean Harney (1 2/3 innings) saw out the rest of the game for UK on the mound.
The only blemish against them came at an inconvenient time: Harney allowed an RBI single in the ninth inning that proved to be the winning run.
“Every guy we ran out there I was pleased with,” Mingione said. “If you told me we’d give up two runs before the game, I’d take it against that offense.”
Does this kind of performance from multiple pitchers make Mingione more inclined to go this route for future Friday games this season?
“It’s one of those deals where as soon as Cole went down, we immediately just put our heads together and we were just going to try to figure out ‘Hey, who can we go to?’” Mingione said. “Those were the guys that we decided upon this week and every week’s different.”
UK’s lone run of the game came in the sixth inning on an RBI groundout by junior Chase Estep.
Saturday: Kentucky wins 9-2
The 2,000th win in Kentucky program history came thanks to another stellar day on the mound from the Wildcats and a late explosion of runs at the plate.
Former Eastern Kentucky pitcher and graduate transfer Darren Williams made his second start for Kentucky on Saturday and was dominant. After allowing two runs in the first inning, Williams allowed just one hit for the rest of his time pitching.
Williams went 6 1/3 innings while allowing three hits, two runs and striking out a season-high seven batters.
“I thought his performance was phenomenal,” Mingione said of Williams, who left the game as a precautionary measure after getting a cut on his finger. “Just loved the way he was on the attack ... he was just in the strike zone with multiple pitches.”
Williams was relived by graduate student Daniel Harper, who didn’t allow a hit and struck out three batters.
“That’s as good as Harper has thrown,” Mingione said, specifically praising Harper’s curve ball.
Unlike Friday night, the Wildcats also provided run support at the plate.
Senior first baseman Jacob Plastiak hit a pair of two-run home runs to straightaway center field in the seventh and eighth innings to help UK secure its eighth come-from-behind win of the season with nine unanswered runs.
These were Plastiak’s first home runs since March 11.
“Needed those,” a relieved Plastiak said postgame.
The offensive output wasn’t limited to Plastiak, either, as graduate student outfielders Hunter Jump and John Thrasher each had three hits.
Jump, who lives with Williams, said Kentucky as a team benefits from the confidence that comes with having an experienced pitcher on the mound.
“He’s a dog on the mound,” Jump said. “He attacks the zone, doesn’t care who’s up to the plate. He’s the same person on and off the field.”
Plastiak agreed.
“That’s our alpha dog on the pitching staff,” Plastiak said of Williams. “Just an older presence, guy has played a lot of college baseball and he’s got the right mentality ... he definitely sets a tone when he’s on the mound.”
Sunday: Ole Miss wins 10-1
After being kept at bay for 21 combined innings, the visiting bats finally came to life in the middle of Sunday’s series-deciding game as Ole Miss (19-8, 4-5) scored two runs in the fourth and six runs in the fifth inning to blow the game open.
The six runs scored in the fifth inning matched the total number of runs Ole Miss had scored in the series up to that point.
UK starter Tyler Bosma lasted 3 2/3 innings while giving up two runs and walking five batters on Sunday, but the bullpen behind him also faltered.
“He was not in the strike zone with multiple pitches as much as he has been,” Mingione said of Bosma.
Three of UK’s six bullpen pitchers on Sunday — freshmen Mason Moore and Jackson Nove, along with Guilfoil — all allowed home runs.
Moore and sophomore Wyatt Hudepohl combined to pitch just one inning, but allowed five runs in that span as Ole Miss built its lead.
“It really comes back to execution,” Mingione said. “One thing we’ve done is we’ve executed some pitches ... I thought (Ole Miss) used the entire field and I thought that worked out well for them today.”
The lone Kentucky run, like on Friday, came via Estep, who hit a solo home run in the fifth inning.
Up next
The next week for the Wildcats will feature a midweek rivalry game and a weekend SEC series on the road that starts a day earlier than usual
UK will host No. 11 Louisville in the first of two meetings this season against the Cardinals at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Kentucky Proud Park. The Cardinals are 21-7 overall this season with a 7-2 record in Atlantic Coast Conference games.
UK and U of L will also play April 19 in Louisville.
After Tuesday night’s rivalry game, the Cats will travel to College Station, Texas, for a three-game series with Texas A&M. The series will run Thursday through Saturday, with the Thursday night and Saturday evening games both broadcast on the SEC Network.
The Aggies are 16-11 overall this season with a 4-5 mark in SEC games.
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
