Kentucky Baseball up to No. 30 in RPI following Tennessee series win

Kentucky jumped nine spots from No. 39 to No. 30 in College Baseball’s latest RPI following its road series victory at No. 4 Tennessee over the weekend.

The RPI Rankings, also known as the Rating Percentage Index, is a formula used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee which ranks teams based on their strength of schedule and how they perform against different levels of competition.

The ‘Cats had been floating around the 45-39 range for most of the season, mostly due to some costly midweek losses to Murray State and Xavier. They’ve however accrued some quality wins as of late to boost their Tournament resume, including over No. 1 Texas, No. 6 Tennessee (twice), No. 10 Georgia, No. 11 Auburn and No. 23 Ole Miss.

Kentucky’s strong pitching has been a catalyst for this recent success, as the Wildcat staff boasts a 3.57 ERA over its last seven games (4-3). Kentucky’s starting pitching was especially strong over the weekend against Tennessee, as right-handers Nate Harris and Nic McCay and left-hander Ben Cleaver posted a combined 3.20 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 19 2/3 innings.

Both McCay and Cleaver lasted at least seven innings, and McCay contributed one of the best pitching performances in the history of Kentucky Baseball. The seventh-year transfer from South Dakota State held Tennessee to just two hits with 12 strikeouts over 7 2/3 innings on Saturday.

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In On3’s Jonathon Wagner’s latest NCAA Tournament projections, Kentucky was slotted as a No. 3 seed in the Chapel Hill Regional alongside No. 1 North Carolina, No. 2 TCU and No. 4 Tennessee Tech. Following its series victory over the ‘Vols, the ‘Cats may have a real chance to move up to a No. 2 seed somewhere in the next projections.

The schedule opens up even more for Nick Mingione’s team over the following weeks, as just two of Kentucky’s final four conference series are against teams ranked in D1Baseball’s latest Top 25 Rankings (No. 9 Vanderbilt and No. 14 Oklahoma). The ‘Cats will also get another crack at No. 19 Louisville on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. EST (Kentucky Proud Park).

For most of the season it seemed like Kentucky would be in the midst of a rebuilding season, but it is certainly putting itself in position to be a player in the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season.