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26 April 2010
After a blistering 17-5 start in non-conference play, the University of Kentucky baseball team has been slowed in SEC play. The Bat Cats are 6-12 in conference play with a series win over Alabama and losses to Ole Miss, Vandy, Arkansas, Florida, and Auburn. Sunday's doubleheader with Auburn (due to a rain out Saturday) started off with an exciting 8-7 UK win, but ended in an even more exciting walk-off 6-5 win by Auburn. The loss to Auburn put Kentucky into a fourth place tie with Tennessee in the SEC East division.
Leading the way for the Cats at the plate are Keenan Wiley (.354), Chad Wright (.354), Gunner Glad (.344), and Chris Bisson (.326) who are all hitting over .300 on the season. Wiley, Wright, Glad, and Andy Burns are all sporting over a .900 OPS and Burns leads the team with 11 home runs. On the defense side, the starting pitching has been a little light for the Cats. None of the starters have an ERA under 5.00 on the year. Relief pitching has been a little more solid with Matt Little (2.54), Mike Kaczmarek (3.24), Braden Kapteyn (3.29), and Walter Wijas (.375) all having less than 4.00 ERAs.
UK has a big stretch coming up in the next two weeks. They visit in-state rival Louisville on Wednesday and then travel to Knoxville for a weekend series with Tennessee. South Carolina comes to town next week and then the Cats will travel to Bloomington to take on Indiana. If UK can get some improved starting pitching and start getting some production out of the bottom of their lineup they can make a move up the East standings. With perennial powerhouse LSU and an unimpressive Georgia team remaining on the schedule, Kentucky could potentially move up to third or fourth in the East prior to postseason play. That's an important position to be in, and UK will need to capture some of their early season magic to get there.
All stats courtesy of UKathletics.com.
