Cats split the day, drop the series with Florida
Dropping two of three games, and a series, to the defending national champion and No. 1 ranked Florida Gators (34-8, 14-3) is nothing to be ashamed of, but for No. 6 Kentucky (26-14, 8-10) it was missed opportunity to make a statement for a national seed come NCAA Tournament time.
The Gators from Gainesville pounded UK’s bullpen Thursday and Friday, while their pitching staff kept the Cats’ bats uncharacterstically silent.
Only a superb outing from Justin Lewis kept the Cats from getting swept.
Florida 9, Kentucky 4
The ghosts of the past came back to haunt No. 6 Kentucky (25-14, 7-10) in a 9-4 loss to the No. 1 Florida Gators (32-7, 14-3) Friday evening at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
The Wildcats have left runners on base all season despite the vaunted reputation of their potent offense. Last night was no different.
Over the course of the first five innings, the Cats advanced five men within striking distance of home plate, and they failed to bring any of them home. Two double plays, one in the first and another in the fourth negated potential runs.
In the meantime, the Gators made the most of their chances.
Florida efficiently used needed just two hits to plate four runs to build their early lead.
A sacrifice bunt by Austin Langworthy and flyout by Brady Smith were enough to make good of J.J. Schwartz's leadoff double.
Kentucky starter Sean Hjelle (5-4) did majority of the heavy lifting for Florida in the top of the third. He walked the bases loaded for the Gators' big bat Will Dalton, who smashed a bases-clearing triple to make Hjelle pay for his transgressions.
The lanky ace cooled his jets after the rocky fourth and retired 13 of 14 Florida batters over the next four innings of work. He exited after the seventh having given up four runs on four hits. Hjelle also had five strikeouts against three walks.
With the Cats within striking distance, their second sin appeared a total implosion by the bullpen.
Jimmy Ramsay and Brad Schanezer combined to give up five runs on five hits in the final two innings. In between them, Carson Coleman kept the Gators quiet in 0.2 innings of work.
The bust by the relief corp was unfortunate since Kentucky finally found their footing on offense late.
Ben Alinsky hit into a double play in the bottom of the eighth but drove in his 32nd run of the year.
The Cats added two more runs in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a wild pitch and Kole Cottam's team-leading 14th dinger of the season, which pushed his RBI count to 34.
Cottam, Tristan Pompey, and Luck Becker were the only Cats to record two hits. They had nine as a team.
Jackson Kowar (7-1) got the win for Florida. He threw seven, five-hit scoreless innings despite giving up four walks. Kowar also had five strikeouts.
Kentucky 3, Florida 2
Kentucky reversed the flow of a week that torrented at them in a form of three-game skid on Saturday in a 3-2 win over Florida in front of over 4,000 fans at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
The Wildcats' starting hurler Justin Lewis (7-2) overcame a putrid first inning to toss an absolute dandy of a game.
Lewis gave up a double, walked a batter, and beaned another to open the game. He followed with two strikeouts and an infield popout.
The string of outs snowballed into a stretch where Lewis sat down 13 of 14 Florida batsmen before running into trouble in the top of the fifth.
A walk, a balk, and a throwing error gave the Gators a run and cut UK's lead to two runs, 3-1.
However, Lewis cruised through his final three innings of work, sitting down nine consecutive Gators. He finished allowing one run on hit to couple with 11 strikeouts versus three walks.
The Cats' trio runs came from a Luke Heyer RBI groundout in the first inning, a Troy Squires RBI single in the second, and another RBI groundout in the third, this one courtesy of Ben Alinski.
Florida get their final run on a two-out homer by J.J. Schwartz in the top of the ninth off of UK close Chris Machamer, who recorded his seventh save of the season.
The Cats belted six hits and were led by Squires with two.
Tyler Dyson (5-3) dropped the game for the Gators. He left the game after two innings, having given up three runs on fours hits to along with four walks. Jack Leftwich tossed six scoreless innings of relief for the defending national champions.