UK back in postseason picture, powered by one of college baseball’s best relief pitchers
One of the best relief pitchers in college baseball is helping lead a late-season postseason push for Kentucky, and it’s not the first time he’s been a dominating presence on the mound in Lexington.
Tyler Guilfoil was a standout pitcher at Lafayette High School, where he won four straight district titles from 2015-18. Guilfoil was a First Team selection to the 2018 Kentucky All-State baseball team.
After spending the first three seasons of his college career at Lipscomb University in Nashville, last summer Guilfoil transferred back home to Kentucky.
The Wildcats’ bullpen has benefited.
Guilfoil has made 17 appearances for the Cats this season, recording a 1.45 earned-run average, 61 strikeouts and 14 walks in 37 1/3 innings pitched.
Against Southeastern Conference opponents, Guilfoil has thrown 26 2/3 innings and has a 1.01 ERA.
He’s also allowed just 19 hits and six runs, and has a team-high four saves.
Opponents are hitting for just a .153 batting average against Guilfoil, and the Cats own a 12-5 record in games in which he’s appeared.
“Tyler’s just been great for us all year long and the team’s extremely confident when he’s in there,” UK head coach Nick Mingione said. “He’s on the attack, he’s got an incredible fastball, great breaking ball, good change-up. Our guys, when he’s on the mound they just believe.”
Against tougher opposition in the SEC, Guilfoil has continued the solid college career that he began at Lipscomb.
Guilfoil made 45 appearances at Lipscomb and was named to the ASUN Conference All-Freshman Team in 2019 and was a Second-Team All-ASUN selection in 2021.
Guilfoil’s finest hour with the Wildcats came during last weekend’s home series win over No. 1 Tennessee, as Guilfoil pitched six innings of one-hit, shutout baseball in a 13-inning victory over the Volunteers to open the series.
Guilfoil was named the SEC Pitcher of the Week following that performance, which resulted in his first win of the season as the pitcher of record.
“Incredible man, incredible man. Every pitch, he wanted that pitch,” said catcher Alonzo Rubalcaba, who was behind the plate for Guilfoil’s outing against Tennessee. “He locked in for every pitch and made it happen.”
Rubalcaba brought that game to an end with a walk-off single to left field.
“I was just trying to go as long as I could, give my team a chance to win and luckily I was able to do that,” Guilfoil said of pitching six innings, his longest outing as a Wildcat. “You have to keep emptying the tank each inning and then just see if you have any more left so you can go back out there.”
It’s been a successful homecoming for Guilfoil, whose parents (Duane and Connie) and older sisters (Lauren and Emma) all also attended Kentucky.
Guilfoil, whose warm-up song is “Got It on Me” by Pop Smoke, is a mechanical engineering major who grew up just 1 mile from the UK campus.
His effectiveness out of the UK bullpen has been even more important given the lack of pitching depth for the Cats.
Two of UK’s best pitchers — Cole Stupp and Darren Williams — are out for the season with injuries and another, Mason Hazelwood, didn’t pitch in the Tennessee series due to arm soreness.
“Being a closer, I’m coming in in those big situations whether it’s the third inning, whether it’s the ninth inning, really just to shut down wherever that game could change,” Guilfoil said. “Us having limited arms may factor into that, but I’m really just trying to win ball games.”
UK gives itself a chance
Last weekend’s series win over No. 1 Tennessee made the Wildcats the only team in college baseball this season to win a series against the Volunteers.
Kentucky also became the first team since 2019 to hand Tennessee an SEC road series defeat.
The series win also vaulted Kentucky back into the postseason picture, at least for the time being.
The 2022 SEC Baseball Tournament will take place at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama, from May 24-29.
The 12-team tournament features a mix of single-elimination and double-elimination play.
The tournament field includes the SEC East and SEC West division winners, along with 10 at-large bids based on conference winning percentage.
That means the bottom two teams in the SEC based on conference winning percentage will not qualify for the tournament.
As of Thursday, Kentucky was tied for 12th in the SEC standings with defending NCAA champion Mississippi State (both 9-15 in league play).
Three teams in the standings — South Carolina, Ole Miss and Alabama — are just ahead of UK and Mississippi State with a 10-14 mark in league play, while Missouri (7-17) is last in the SEC.
All SEC teams have played 24 league games so far, and all have six league games still to come.
Kentucky has never won the SEC Tournament, first held in the 1976-77 season.
Next games
What: Kentucky at South Carolina
Where: Founders Park in Columbia, S.C.
When: Friday (7 p.m.), Saturday (Noon), Sunday (1:30 p.m.)
TV/Online: SEC Network Plus (Friday and Sunday), SEC Network (Saturday)
