Update: The UK/U of L game was postponed due to weather.
The Kentucky Wildcats baseball team is in the process of starting their season quite nicely. At 20-8 (6-3, SEC), they are in the upper tier of the SEC East along with perennial powers Florida, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
Resiliency has played a key role in their success thus far. How so?
Rough Losses
Kentucky has a few games on the schedule that they no doubt would like to have back. A 5-4 loss to Wofford on Feb. 19 comes to mind. So does the 14-6 loss to Western Kentucky on Mar. 15 and the 5-4 setback against Northern Kentucky on Mar. 29. Those three games would have them sitting in an even better position than they are currently in now.
Nothing can be done to undo those games now and Kentucky has done a good job of bouncing back and moving on when blips in the radar have happened. They haven’t let a bad loss become bad losses.
Valuing Series Wins
The Cats have played three SEC weekend series and have found a way to win them all. They have dropped all of the opening games against Georgia, No. 1 Florida and Tennessee, and were outscored by a 31-12 margin. Yet they were able to bounce back, shake it off and settle in to close things out. In their most recent series against Tennessee the Cats’ bats were muted for the biggest part of game one, while Tennessee’s Jordan Rodgers was hitting for the cycle and helping Tennessee to a 14-5 victory.
Yet, as they’ve done all season, they bounced back for a 5-4 win to even things up and cruised to a 10-2 win in the finale on Sunday.
Raking And Rolling
The fact that Kentucky is getting record-setting production in multiple aspects of the game must be recognized too.
Gunnar McNeill singles up the middle with 1 out, extending his hitting streak to a school-record 23 games.
— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) April 3, 2016
Gunnar McNeill has been rolling. He went yard in the opener against Tennessee and helped contribute to Kentucky’s only rally of the game. His .384 batting average is second only to Zach Reks’ .393 clip.
On the pitching side of things, Dustin Beggs is making history of his own.
Dustin Beggs is the first #UKbaseball pitcher to win his first 7 starts to a season. He ranks 3rd in UK history in winning percentage.
— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) April 3, 2016
Beggs is locked in just as much as McNeill is.
Rivalry Week
Kentucky won’t face a midweek game much tougher than their foe this week. Yes, the Louisville Cardinals will make their way to Cliff Hagan Stadium.
No. 13 #UKbaseball will host No. 4 Louisville in a rivalry clash on Wednesday at #TheCliff.
PREVIEW: https://t.co/AlIAhAwM6T
— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) April 5, 2016
Kentucky versus Louisville is always intense no matter the sport. Add in the fact that both teams are ranked in the top 15 and it gets that much juicier. An upset of the Cardinals would be a nice way for the Cats to head into their next weekend series against Alabama.
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