Kentucky Baseball: Bat Cats Hit The Skids

Here is your belated ballot for the SEC Power Poll for baseball last week. I got busy, and then the Derby and the Oaks and all that, and it got overlooked. Our next ballot will be due Tuesday, and I'll try to be more timely next week than I was this week.

The poll result has been out for several days now, and in case you missed it, you can find it here at For Whom the Cowbell Tolls. Kentucky has fallen to mid-pack due to the pounding they suffered at home at the hands of the Ole Miss Rebels. Look for them to drop even further next week after losing the series to Tennessee yesterday in Knoxville, 2-1.

Kentucky baseball has been frustrating this season. They are so offensively powerful that they can overwhelm teams at times, but their pitching has been pretty bad, and an endless series of fielding errors that seem to crop up game after game have really helped their opponents. At the moment, the Bat Cats are just an average team struggling to get above .500, and as promising as Kentucky looked early in the season, they have really hit the skids lately.

Kentucky has one more home stand against the Auburn Tigers next weekend, then non-conference Murray State in Paducah. Kentucky will close its SEC season against the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens. I do think Kentucky will make it to Hoover for the SEC tournament (The top 12 SEC win percentage teams are invited), but honestly, they need to play better real soon or even that could be in doubt. they are two games under .500 in the league, tied with Tennessee. If they dump the series with Auburn, they will have a ton of pressure on them in Athens. So the heat is definitely rising on the Bat Cats.

The good news is that there are 3 teams worse than Kentucky right now, and Kentucky gets to play both of them down the stretch. Winning both those series would assure Kentucky of their spot in Hoover, and probably make an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament reasonably likely. The Wildcats have a very high RPI rank at #16 (as of last week), and if they get to Hoover, I think they will get an at-large bid.

Truth to tell, though, if Kentucky pitching doesn't get better quickly, I don't see them doing a great deal of post-season damage. You never know, though, because Kentucky is so explosive offensively that they can get hot bats and just massacre good teams that would otherwise be favored to win. This is just a mercurial team that has to hit well to win most games, because the pitching and defense just hasn't been there this season.

Anyway, here's last week's Power Poll ballot: