Kentucky falls 5-3 in series finale against Vanderbilt
Coming off a much-needed victory on Saturday, Kentucky (22-18, 6-12 SEC) failed to build off that momentum, instead falling 5-3 in the series finale against Vanderbilt.
Doomed from the jump
Absolutely needing a win on Sunday, the Wildcats turned to Seth Logue with hopes that the sophomore could get out of his recent stretch of struggles. Instead, we might’ve just gotten the worst of it all.
Logue allowed a bomb off the bat of Enrique Bradfield on the very first pitch to put Kentucky in an immediate hole. Two consecutive singles later and pitching coach Dan Rozel sauntered out to the mound to pull Logue out of the game without ever recording an out.
There’s an understandable aspect that you don’t theoretically want to keep your pitcher out there if they clearly don’t have it. Especially when every game means so much at this point. But still, it’s certainly head-scratching to let Logue start if you were going to give him such a small leash.
“He wasn’t making the pitch,” Head Coach Nick Mingione said about his starter on Sunday. “We were going to go to Sean first one out of the pen. Obviously, we hoped that it would’ve been a little later than that.”
With two men on base and zero outs, Sean Harney was called into the game on short notice. He allowed two singles to bring in unearned runs, making it a three run game by the time Kentucky grabbed the bats.
Harney certainly wasn’t at his best today, but he still did enough to make sure that the matinee didn’t become a total blowout. The grad transfer went six innings on the day, fanning five while giving up six hits, including two more RBI singles. Throwing 102 pitches, it was overall a relatively successful outing considering the situation he was thrust into.
Mason Moore and Austin Strickland combined to throw three scoreless innings after that to end the game.
Bats held at bay once again
On a day where the ball was flying through wind at ease on a gorgeous 80-degree afternoon, the ‘Cats couldn’t seem to get much help from mother nature.
Kentucky collected seven hits in the game, with Ryan Ritter responsible for nearly half of them. The lack of runs didn’t come from a lack of opportunity, however. The Wildcats were able to get themselves on base at a decent clip by way of walks.
Kentucky’s first run today came from a solo shot off the bat of Jake Plastiak, his 10th of the season.
A couple of innings later, Plastiak was inches away from making it a one run game. The first basemen launched what looked to be a three-run home run to deep center until Bradfield came over and made an utterly ridiculous catch to save the ball from leaving the yard.
Kentucky picked up a pair of runs on RBI hits from Ritter and Hunter Jump in the seventh to cut the lead to two.
“We had the chance right there. We were one swing away from winning that ball game,” Mingione said about his offense’s performance. “Our guys fought and clawed back until the very end.”
We’ll next see the ‘Cats at Kentucky Proud Park this Tuesday for a mid-week matchup with Dayton. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. and will be shown on SEC Network+.
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
KSBoard