Kentucky and Louisville a top-10 matchup — in college baseball

According to the latest Collegiate Baseball Rankings, Louisville is the No. 6 team in the nation.

According to those same rankings, Kentucky is the No. 9 team in the nation.

“To me, it’s pretty cool,” UK Coach Gary Henderson said on Tuesday.

It is pretty cool that the two in-state rivals are both in the top 10 in the nation for the first of their two annual meetings, this one Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

“I would hope (the media) and the fans would feel the same,” Henderson said, “whether you’re a UK fan or U of L fan, to have two teams like that being recognized like that nationally speaks a lot to the athletic departments and the support you get at the top.”

Louisville is no stranger to the spot, of course. Coach Dan McDonnell’s team made back-to-back College World Series trips in 2013 and 2014 before making it to a Super Regional last year. This season, Louisville was 24-7 heading into Tuesday night’s game with Western Kentucky. The Cards are 10-5 in the difficult ACC and No. 6 in the RPI.

Kentucky is holding up its end of the bargain. Henderson’s Cats are 22-9 overall, 8-4 in the difficult SEC and No. 29 in the RPI. They have won each of their four conference weekend series, including two of three from then-No. 1 Florida two weeks ago and two of three at home from Alabama this past weekend.

Henderson’s club is a confident group, one that thinks it can make the plays to win games. Take last Saturday, when Riley Mahan delivered a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth for the 6-2 win over Alabama. The night before, the Cats fought back from a two-run deficit with a three-run sixth inning for what was ultimately a 3-2 win over Bama.

“If you were at the ballpark (last weekend), I think it felt like we were going to win all three games and, boy, do you strive for that every year with your kids,” Henderson said. “Our guys think we’re going to win, which is a great thing. You can feel it in the stands, I know you can because you can feel it in the dugout.”

Sophomore right-hander Kade McClure, who is 6-0 with a 2.31 ERA, is expected to be Louisville’s starting pitcher. Sophomore left-hander Zach Logue, 1-0 with a 4.02 ERA, will start for Kentucky. Henderson said he will go with Logue as long as he can because UK starts an important SEC series at Vanderbilt on Friday.

“I’ll tell you the same thing I’ve been telling you for eight or nine years, we’re playing Friday,” said the coach. “So you don’t get too high, you don’t get too low. Yeah, you want to win it. It’s a rivalry game. But you’ve got to get on to the next one, win or lose.”

Still, Wednesday is an important game — “You can’t shy away from that,” Henderson said — in terms of the RPI, which helps determine NCAA seedings. Kentucky won both games from U of L in 2014 before losing to the Cards in the NCAA Tournament. Louisville swept both games last season.

“They’ve got some exceptional players,” said Henderson of this year’s Cardinals. “I spent three weeks with three of those kids last summer, so I know those guys well. Good players. Good kids.”

That was when Henderson served as an assistant coach on the USA Collegiate National Team, which included Louisville outfielder Corey Ray, pitcher Zack Burdi and pitcher/first baseman Brendan McKay.

“Luckily, there’s no Chris Dominguez sitting there in the middle of that lineup, but (Dan’s) got a good group,” Henderson said of McDonnell. “Very familiar with them and respect them.”

After all, Louisville is a top-10 team. Just like Kentucky.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Kentucky and Louisville a top-10 matchup — in college baseball."