Kentucky Baseball collapses late against No. 1 Tennessee in SEC Tournament semis

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Head coach Nick Mingione will have to hope his team’s efforts this week were enough to make the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Kentucky Baseball (33-26, 12-18 SEC) was knocked out of the SEC Tournament semifinals early Sunday morning, falling to No. 1 Tennessee by an ugly final score of 12-2. The ‘Cats were actually tied with UT 2-2 entering the eighth inning, but four runs in the top of the eighth for the Vols and six more in the ninth made this game look far more lopsided than it truly was throughout most of the night.

It was a disappointing end to what was an otherwise unbelievable run for the Bat ‘Cats, which made the program’s first SEC semifinals since 2014.

Heading into Selection Monday, Kentucky is going to have to rely on the work it did over the last several days to sneak into the Field of 64. It was an impressive run for the ‘Cats, which entered the tourney as the conference’s 12-seed. UK took down a trio of quality opponents in Auburn, Vanderbilt, and LSU. A win over UT would have been the cherry on top of the proverbial ice cream.

But that’s not the way the bats were swinging, and Kentucky will have to hope its season-long resume stacks up better than the rest. Following the loss to Tennessee, D1Baseball had UK as the “5th team out”. Despite plenty of quality top 25 wins, an RPI of 52 is what’s preventing the ‘Cats from being seen as a Field of 64 lock.

Incredibly proud of what this TEAM did in Hoover. pic.twitter.com/ieLfgECO5e
— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) May 29, 2022

Earlier this month near the end of the regular season, Kentucky shocked the college baseball world by upsetting the No. 1 ranked Volunteers two times out of three games at Kentucky Proud Park. It was and still is the only time this season that UT dropped a series.

But the ‘Cats wouldn’t be so successful this time around. First pitch wasn’t thrown until roughly 10:00 p.m. EST and the game didn’t end until nearly two in the morning. Kentucky was used to late starts at this point though, and looked sharp from the jump.

Tennessee would strike in the top of the first thanks to a wild pitch from UK’s Magdiel Cotto that allowed a Vols runner to score, but that was the only damage they could muster up until the fourth inning.

A pair of scoreless innings in the second and third from both sides set up UT to take a 2-0 lead. Cotto was replaced on the mound by Austin Strickland, who quickly gave up a RBI single that scored the Vols’ second run of the night. Strickland would settle in after that mishap though, throwing 3.2 innings of three-hit, five-strikeout ball.

Kentucky would find its offensive footing in the bottom of the fifth inning. Hunter Jump and Daniel Harper drilled back-to-back doubles that pushed Jump through home plate and put Harper in scoring position. An error from the Tennessee catcher allowed Harper to bring the tying run in, making it 2-2.

The bullpen for the ‘Cats continued to produce over the next two innings, but in the top of the eighth, the wheels began to fall off entirely. Kentucky just didn’t have enough arms to survive the taxing week of pitching against elite opponents. Tennessee went ahead 6-2 in the eighth then began to pour it on in the ninth, securing the 12-2 victory.