Kentucky Baseball winning games at historic pace
With Kentucky’s 17-13 slugfest victory over Louisville Tuesday night, the Cats improved to 31-5 (14-1) on the season.
Their 31-5 record matches their best 36-game start to a season in school history, which occurred in 2012. That Wildcat team finished 18-12 in SEC play (45-18 overall) and lost in their Regional Final.
The 2024 Bat Cats however aren’t just winning games, they are dominating games. Through their first 36 games, Kentucky is outscoring opponents 225-100. They are quite literally doubling up the competition.
Halfway through conference play, the Cats are well on their way to possibly earning a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament and being a top-eight national seed in the NCAA Tournament. It looks certain that Kentucky will make back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time in program history.
D1Baseball’s Joe Healy detailed what Kentucky needed to do the rest of the way to secure a top-eight national seed.
“Honestly, not all that much,” Healy said. “They already have 14 wins in SEC play, so five more conference wins and UK should feel pretty good about itself. Six more and they’re basically a lock. Considering that the Wildcats were a 12 overall seed last season and went 16-14 in the SEC in the regular season and lost its only game in Hoover. So 19 to 20 conference wins seems like the magic number regardless of SEC Tournament performance.”
This would mean that Kentucky would *at worst* need to finish 6-9 in its final 15 SEC games. Its remaining conference series are against No. 4 Tennessee (home), No. 20 South Carolina (away), No. 2 Arkansas (home), Florida, and No. 13 Vanderbilt (home).
Through Kentucky’s first 15 SEC games, the Bat Cats outscored opponents 142-57 and didn’t trail in eight consecutive conference games from March 29-April 12. Only a complete and utter collapse would prevent this season from finishing as possibly the greatest in program history.
The No. 3 ranked Cats will face their toughest challenge to date this season this weekend, as No. 4 Tennessee comes to town for a massive top-five clash. With a sweep of the Vols, Kentucky would match the best start to SEC play in conference history (17-1).
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