This weekend is it for the regular season SEC baseball series at Cliff Hagan Stadium, and the Alabama Crimson Tide are coming to town to take on the #7 Kentucky Wildcats.
The Bat Cats have slipped down from the top spot due to a recent performance decline, going only .500 in their last 10 games. The Wildcats took a tough 12-inning 6-5 victory from the Indiana Hoosiers on Wednesday after dropping the series to Florida last weekend, 2-1. That represents the second series loss in a row for Kentucky, who also lost 2-1 to Vanderbilt back in late April.
The Tide come into Cliff Hagan off a 2-1 loss to #29 Mississippi St, whom the Bat Cats will face next weekend for their season's final SEC series. Alabama is last in the West at 7-17 on the SEC season, and currently in the basement overall by one game.
The Wildcats will send their normal weekend pitching rotation to the mound against the Tide, which includes three left-handers, juniors Taylor Rogers (5-3, 4.81 ERA) on Friday and Jerad Grundy (4-2, 4.08 ERA) on Saturday, and sophomore Corey Littrell (7-4, 2.30 ERA) on Sunday. The tide will counter with freshman right-hander Spencer Turnbull (2-4, 4.56 ERA) and freshman southpaw Jon Keller (1-5, 4.14 ERA) on Friday and Saturday respectively with junior righty Charley Sullivan (2-2, 5.03 ERA) on Sunday.
The series will not be televised. Check UKAthletics.com's gameday page for broadcast details.
Kentucky is currently one game out of first place in the East behind the national champion South Carolina Gamecocks, but the Gamecocks are on the road against 12-12 Georgia Bulldogs. The Diamond Dawgs have been playing better of late and winners of four out of their last five, including a sweep of Auburn in Athens, although they are coming off a tough loss to arch-rival Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on the road in Atlanta.
If the Wildcats can sweep the Tide, I like their chances of being in the lead in the East going into the MSU series, which will be a tough one against former UK coach John Cohen's team. But South Carolina has it even tougher against the 16-8 and SEC West-leading LSU Tigers, although they do get the Bayou Bengals in Columbia.
Use this thread to discuss the games. Go, 'Cats!