| Friday at Arkansas, 7:35 pm |
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Jr., LHP Taylor Rogers (4-1, 4.53 ERA) vs. So., RHP Ryne Stanek (6-1, 1.65 ERA) Radio: UK IMG(WLAP 630 AM in Lexington, WKJK in Lou.) |
| Saturday at Arkansas, 3:05 pm |
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Jr., LHP Jerad Grundy (3-1, 4.32 ERA) vs. So., RHP Barrett Astin (2-2, 0.84 ERA) Radio: UK IMG (WLAP 630 AM in Lexington, WKJK in Lou.)Live Audio Text Updates |
| Sunday at Arkansas, 1:05 pm |
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So., LHP Corey Littrell (5-0, 2.02 ERA) vs. Jr., RHP DJ Baxendale (6-1, 4.20 ERA) Radio: UK IMG(WLAP 630 AM in Lexington, WKJK in Lou.)Live Audio Text Updates |
Today is a big, big day for the Kentucky Wildcats baseball team. After dropping a 12-0 shutout to the detested Louisville Cardinals in Cliff Hagan on Tuesday, the Bat Cats travel west to Fayetteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Wildcats are currently leading the East by two games and the overall SEC by one. You can find series particulars to the right, courtesy of UKAthletics.com.
The shutout loss to Louisville has not shaken Kentucky's confidence, but baseball is one of those games where things like that can begin a series of miscues. In spite of that, the Wildcats believe Louisville was just a bad game:
"We're going to be fine," [freshman first baseman A.J.] Reed said. "Our offense will show up this weekend, our pitching will show up this weekend and our defense will show up this weekend. We're not really worried about it, we just had a bad game."
UK will send its regular weekend pitching rotation to the mound against the Hawgs, junior southpaws Taylor Rogers (4-1, 4.53 ERA) today and Jerad Grundy (3-1, 4.32 ERA) on Saturday. Sophomore left-hander Corey Littrell (5-0, 2.02 ERA) will take the mound for the last game of the 3-game series on Sunday.
This will be the toughest test of the season for the surprising Bat Cats, who were thought to be a likely cellar-dweller by many experts coming into the season. Both Kentucky and Arkansas are coming off out-of-conference losses, Kentucky 12-0 to #18 Louisville and Arkansas 4-0 at the unranked Oklahoma Sooners.
The winner of this series will make a strong claim for the overall SEC lead, and it doesn't get any easier after this for the Wildcats -- a home game against the Cincinnati Bearcats and then the West-leading #10 ranked LSU Tigers come to Lexington to find out who the better team is. UK could really help their cause with a series victory over the Razorbacks this weekend.