Bat Cats show ability to play from behind, sweep The Citadel

For the third consecutive day at Kentucky Proud Park, the Wildcats showed their ability to come from behind against an upset-minded opponent.

The Citadel held a lead in each game of the weekend series, but No. 21 Kentucky completed a sweep of the pesky Bulldogs with a 13-5 win on Sunday.

Kentucky (14-2) extended its win streak to nine on a weekend when none of its starting pitchers had their best stuff. Nate Harris was only able to record four outs before departing in the second inning with a 5-4 deficit, but it hardly mattered as the Cats pounded out 16 hits on the day.

“Obviously, you wish you were never behind,” UK head coach Nick Mingione said. “You wanna always play ahead, right, especially when you get out to a 4-0 lead. But, hey, sometimes that’s not how it works.

“We talked about it last night (after trailing 7-6 in the eighth inning before ultimately winning 12-7). There’s a belief. There was no panic at all. Zero panic.”

“I felt like every game, we got punched first, but we punched right back,” said sophomore right fielder Ryan Schwartz, who had his best game of the young season with three hits.

Ethan Hindle and Caeden Cloud each homered to account for one of their two hits on the day. Each player in the UK lineup had at least one hit, and six had multi-hit games.

Hindle recorded the Cats’ second inside-the-park home run of the week as part of a three-run fourth inning that put Kentucky ahead to stay. The junior second baseman also drove in four runs, scored four times, and stole a base.

Kentucky pounded out 38 hits over the weekend, scoring 10, 12, and 13 runs.

“Everyone’s just trusting their approach, and I feel like everyone is just feeding off each other,” Schwartz said.

Jack Bennett (1-0) picked up his first win of the season out of the UK bullpen, turning in three scoreless innings of relief. The Cats’ Leighton Harris, Tristan Hunter, Ira Austin IV, and Jack Sams also combined for 4.2 scoreless innings.

“Leighton was awesome. He got us five huge outs today,” Mingione said. “And that’s with him throwing multiple times this week. He was phenomenal. I loved his energy, loved his attack.

“And then Jack Bennett got us three innings and nine outs, just allowed our offense to claw back.”

Jackson Bottar (0-1), the second pitcher on the day for The Citadel, took the loss. He allowed three runs on four hits, a walk, a hit batter, and two wild pitches.

The Bulldogs dropped to 5-8 on the season.

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Up Next

Kentucky returns to action on Tuesday at KPP against Ball State. It’s the final tune-up for SEC play, which begins with Alabama coming to Lexington on March 13.

FINAL: Kentucky 13, The Citadel 5

Cats complete three-game weekend sweep of the Bulldogs on KPP. pic.twitter.com/UJAla2IMlW

— Jeff Drummond (@JDrumUK) March 8, 2026