Bats come alive late on chilly day as Kentucky sweeps series with High Point
Sometimes, you just gotta use the wind to your advantage.
Kentucky Baseball could barely get anything going for most of the day but they salvaged a decent performance from Ryan Hagenow and the rest of the bullpen in a 4-3 walk-off win for the ‘Cats as they complete the weekend sweep against High Point, moving to 14-3 on the season before going on the road this week.
Bullpen effort saves the day for Kentucky
Nick Mingione and his staff opted to use today as a bullpen day. Ryan Hagenow, who still has potential to be a complete weekend starter at some point this season, got the nod.
The Knoxville, TN native was superb in his first action in over a week. Hagenow went three innings of hitless ball. He tied a career-high in strikeouts with six while throwing 47 pitches over the span. He may have gotten a little help to keep it hitless as well as scoreless.
Hagenow’s ERA sits at a misleading 7.00 after his third appearance of the year. He has pitched much better than what the numbers will tell you. Even though he was rolling, Mingione wanted to keep to his original plan for the day.
“He hadn’t thrown more than that,” Mingione responded when asked about why he took the sophomore out after only a few innings. “Obviously he was fantastic… he did a good job.”
Unfortunately for the coach, his decision immediately backfired on him. Tyler Guilfoil came in from the pen and gave up a towering shot over the left-field bullpen to the second batter he saw.
Daniel Harper entered in the fifth and things started to fall apart. The righty only recorded one out, giving up three hits and a run before being yanked in favor of Sean Harney.
Harney allowed one of the baserunners he inherited to score in a pretty odd fashion. With a man on third, It appeared as if Sam Zayicek had fouled a ball straight back to the backstop. The home plate umpire made no call, allowing Cole Singsank to scamper home from third. High Point took a 3-1 lead.
“I could’ve sworn I heard it and was like ‘that’s a foul ball’ and completely forgot to cover home so that’s my bad on the third run,” Harney said postgame. “Completely take the blame for that but had to move on, have a short memory and just forget about it.”
The usually reliable Harney settled down after that, pitching the final three innings without allowing a run. His ERA sits at 2.08 after 13.1 innings on the year so far.
“He’s just so competitive,” Mingione said about the reliever. “I thought he responded well after that and gave us a chance.”
Bat ‘Cats go cold until late in frigid temperature
For a team still averaging nearly 10 runs per game, the Kentucky bats looked anemic for the most part today in the cold. The team was only able to muster up one run through the first seven frames. That came from a Jake Plastiak RBI double off the center-field fence that brought Chase Estep home from first.
The ‘Cats were able to get men on first and second with no outs in the seventh. Only to get one run out of it, coming from a fielder’s choice ground out that allowed Jase Felker to score.
Heading into the ninth down 3-2, things were looking bleak for the Wildcats. That was until Devin Burkes laid down a sac-bunt, only to see the High Point pitcher throw it into right field, giving Kentucky men on first and third with no outs. A perfectly executed squeeze bunt from Harris tied the game up. One wild pitch later and Alonzo Rubalcaba was up at the plate with the winning run on third.
I don’t even know how to describe what happened next…
“I can’t say it enough about our guys and our competitive spirit,” Mingione said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re up, down, it doesn’t matter… there’s a lot of pressure, and our guys put the ball in play and there you go.”
We’ll next see Kentucky this upcoming Tuesday for a weekday matchup against Big Ten foe Indiana. It’ll be another test against Power 5 competition before traveling to Arkansas next week. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. EST, the game will not be shown on TV but can be heard on the radio via the UK Sports Network.
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