Kentucky's inability to hold leads wound up being the epitaph for the Wildcats' season.
The Cats fell to West Virginia 13-12 on Sunday night in the NCAA Clemson Regional after failing to hold a pair of five-run leads spanning a 4 1/2-hour game.
Kentucky led 6-1 in the fourth inning and 12-7 in the eighth, but surrendered six runs to the Mountaineers in the bottom half of each inning.
West Virginia was in that position because it was the home team after Kentucky committed two costly throwing errors and blew a 3-0 lead late in Friday's regional opener before losing 4-3 to the Mountaineers on a walk-off hit.
The two losses in Clemson added to UK’s season total of 12 one-run defeats. Kentucky’s season ended at 31-26 with the Cats holding the lead in 28 of 31 games they played against SEC opponents and in all four of the regional games this weekend.
West Virginia (44-14) will advance to play the winner of the Baton Rouge Regional.
Pitching, defense, and baserunning all played a role in UK’s collapse.
In the fourth inning, Kentucky shortstop Tyler Bell failed to convert what looked like a routine double-play ground ball that would have ended the inning. West Virginia responded by scoring six runs to take a brief 7-6 lead.
The Cats immediately reclaimed the lead in the fifth inning and added to it in the sixth and eighth. It could have been even larger, but UK had a runner thrown out attempting to steal second in the eighth prior to a home run by catcher Devin Burkes.
That run loomed large as West Virginia mounted a two-out rally in the bottom of the inning. Back-to-back walks issued by freshman reliever Tommy Skelding with runners at first and second made it 12-8.
A two-run single by Gavin Kelly against new pitcher Nile Adcock, who had pitched earlier in the day in UK's 16-4 win over Clemson, made it 12-10.
That brought Ben Lumsden to the plate, who entered the game with a .136 season batting average. He lined a base hit off UK's third pitcher of the inning, James McCoy, to tie the game at 12-12.
A fourth Kentucky pitcher, Hayden Smith, ried to get the Cats out of the disastrous inning, but WVU's 9-hole hitter, Armani Guzman, laced his fourth hit of the night into centerfield to give the Mountaineers what proved to be the game-winning run.
Four of Kentucky's eight relief pitchers surrendered runs. The staff walked seven batters and hit two with pitches. Starter Scott Rouse was charged with five earned runs in 3.1 innings. McCoy (1-2) took the loss.
Kentucky had a baserunner in the top of the ninth but could not move him from first. It was the 13th runner stranded by the Cats on a 13-hit day. Carson Hansen had three hits, while Luke Lawrence, Cole Hage, Devin Burkes, and Hudson Brown each had two.
Benjamin Hudson (3-1) picked up the win out of the WVU bullpen in a war of attrition. Griffin Kirn, who started Friday's game and pitched well against UK, picked up the save by working the ninth inning.
The Mountaineers survived despite committing five errors.
