Zack Lee flounders as UK's comeback falls short against Ohio, 9-8

The comeback kids almost did it again. The Wildcats erased a seven-run deficit brought on by Zack Lee and Colby Frieda but still lost 9-8 to Ohio as they moved to 11-3 on the season.

The Cats make huge rally, fall on leaping grab in outfield in 9th. pic.twitter.com/umZ9dpDGCQ

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) March 10, 2022

Pitching settles down after an awful start

The dilemma of Zack Lee continues to grow for Nick Mingione and his staff. After 13 starts and a 5.31 ERA during his sophomore season in 2021, the Wildcats influx of new pitching forced Lee to the bullpen for this season. Early results have not been great either. In four appearances before on Wednesday, the junior has had a 4.26 ERA. His walk-to-strikeout ratio is much better than years past, but he’s still getting hit hard.

Whether it was a planned bullpen day meant to only give him an inning or another audition to get back in the rotation, Lee fumbled the opportunity. The Illinois native lasted one inning, giving up three hits, and three runs while throwing two wild pitches. One of those led to the final run of the opening frame.

The freshman Colby Freida entered in relief for the second inning, and his performance was even uglier. He only mustered up one out before getting yanked. The Florida native allowed four runs on four hits, one being a bases clearing double to the right-center fence. By the end of the second, it was already a 7-0 game.

If anything, you can find solace with how the rest of the bullpen staff performed the rest of the year. Over the next 6.2 innings, the Kentucky bullpen combined to only allow one run. Mason Moore let the run come by, but went 2.2 innings of relief without walking a batter.

Austin Strickland came in the ninth and faltered. The sophomore allowed two hits, walked a couple of batters and let the final run come across the board.

“We gotta be better. We’re not where we want to be,” Nick Mingione said about his disappointing pitching staff to start the year despite the record. “We got certain guys but when you look at it as a whole, we gotta be better.”

You can’t have the offense bail you out every game

When the team has averaged over nine runs a game through the first 13 of the season, you almost expected the Wildcats to come back from another seven-run deficit. Absolutely absurd if you think about it.

And to the complete surprise of nobody following this team, that’s exactly what happened.

“We did everything we could to fight back,” Mingione said after the game. “Give them a lot of credit, they got the hit to start the ninth just like we did and they cashed in and we didn’t. That was the difference in the game.”

It took until the fourth inning for Kentucky to get a run across home plate. With men on first and second, Daniel Harris grounded to the third basemen. Unable to handle the ball, it trickled into the outfield allowing Adam Fogel to score the first run of the day.

One of the brightest spots today was the continued dominance of Chase Estep. The reigning SEC Player of the Week followed up his three-hit performance on Tuesday by going 2-4 on the day, including an absolute missile to right-center for his fifth home run of the year. The junior is now batting .481 on the year.

Kentucky cut the lead to two with a four-run seventh inning. Ryan Ritter got the festivities started with an RBI single to right field. The All-American shortstop has now reached base in 17 straight games. Jake Plastiak followed up by launching a two-run double off the center field fence. It was much needed for the first basemen after he struck out in six of the last seven at-bats before that.

Hunter Jump singled up the middle to complete the inning and cut Ohio’s lead down to two.

Kentucky tied the game up with a two-run eighth inning. Ritter got one back with an RBI ground out that scored Harris. Two walks later and Adam Fogel came up to the plate with the bases loaded. Kirk Liebert came across with the tying run on a wild pitch. Fogel later struck out to end the inning.

“I love that about our team,” Mingione said about another seven-run comeback this year. “This team is uber competitive and we fight back.

The Wildcats got a runner all the way to third in the final frame before the Ohio right-fielder made an impressive leaping catch to finish the game off.

Kentucky gets a day off before coming back out for another double header on Friday to kick off their weekend series against High Point. Game one is set for a noon start and will be broadcasted on the SEC Network+.