Red-Hot Kentucky Baseball Welcomes EKU to KPP With Top 25 Ranking

Tuesday’s matchup against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels will be historic for the Kentucky Baseball program. It will be the first-ever game played at Kentucky Proud Park in which the Wildcats were ranked in the Top 25 by D1Baseball. The last time the Bat ‘Cats were ranked was all the way back in 2018, the program’s final season at “The Cliff.”

Nick Mingione’s squad snuck into Monday’s rankings, coming in at No. 23. The Wildcats received a huge boost thanks to a 12-2 win over Indiana and a sweep of 2021 National Champion Mississippi State last week. Kentucky improved to 18-2 after another dominant week and is in the midst of a 14-game winning streak, the longest active win streak in Division I.

Eastern Kentucky makes its way to Lexington to try and slay the dragon. EKU enters Tuesday’s matchup 8-11, fresh off a series loss to Bellarmine. Their matchup with the Wildcats will be their sixth intra-state game played this season. The Colonels are 1-4 in those outings with losses to Louisville, NKU, and Bellarmine (twice). They took a game from Bellarmine on Sunday.

EKU Impact Players

Junior Miguel Larreal has been the Colonels’ most impactful player this season. Larreal is slashing .370 with 20 hits in 54 at-bats. After Larreal however, EKU doesn’t sport another offensive starter with a .269-plus BA. Senior Logan Thomason sports a .271 BA with 19 hits in 70 at-bats and leads the ‘Kerns with 34 total bases. Thomason went 3-for-5 with a home run, two doubles, two runs and four RBIs in last year’s matchup.

Offense isn’t exactly EKU’s specialty, as they have scored double-digit runs on just two occasions this season. Losing First-Team All-ASUN member Kendall Ewell to the Wildcats in the offseason left a gaping hole in their lineup. Ewell, however, hasn’t gotten off to quite the start expected of him in the blue and white, as he’s batting .222 with just four hits in 18 at-bats.

Junior RHP Rian Yates will start on the mound for the ‘Kerns. Yates will be making his fourth start and fifth appearance of the season. In just 10 innings pitched, Yates has given up 11 hits and nine earned runs. Tuesday night could be a bullpen game for the EKU staff. The Colonels will be looking to extend their win streak against UK to two, as EKU won last year’s game 6-3 at Kentucky Proud Park.

Kentucky Impact Players

Kentucky enters Tuesday night as one of the hottest teams in all of college baseball. Over the last five games, the ‘Cats have outscored opponents a staggering 68-16. Three of those five wins ended in fewer than nine innings. Offense and pitching are hitting on all cylinders right now for Mingione’s squad.

Kentucky has six offensive players with a plus-.300 batting average and eight pitchers with a sub-4.00 ERA. Sophomore Émilien Pitre leads the way for the offense with a .429 average with 30 hits in 70 at-bats. Longwood transfer Hunter Gilliam has turned into one of the most impactful transfers in the country. Gilliam is seeing a beach ball at the plate right now, as he’s hitting .421 with hits in 32 of his 76 at-bats. Gilly leads the team in hits (32), home runs (five), RBI (33), and total bases (56). The ‘Cats are hitting .319 as a team and combine for a 2.88 team ERA. Good hitting leads to good pitching.

Redshirt freshman RHP Travis Smith is Tuesday’s probable starter. In 13.2 innings pitched this season, Smith holds a 3.29 ERA with just nine hits and five earned runs allowed. Smith has more strikeouts (15) than hits allowed (nine). Smith appears to still be on a pitch count after offseason Tommy John surgery, so look for the bullpen to make their presence known relatively early. The Wildcats’ pen has been locked in this season. The trio of Ryan Hagenow, Seth Chavez, and Mason Moore have been deadly for opposing batters, as they combine for a 0.20 ERA with 13 hits allowed, just one earned run allowed, and 45 strikeouts in 33 combined innings.

First pitch for Tuesday night’s game has been moved up to 5:30 p.m. EST to due predicted rain in the area. The Wildcats will be looking for their 15th win in a row and revenge after they fell to the Colonels last season at Kentucky Proud Park.