Kentucky Baseball: Cats get a huge SEC series win over Missouri

The Kentucky Wildcats had a huge weekend series against the Missouri Tigers as they are fighting for a trip to the SEC Tournament.

In Game 1 on Friday night, the Cats and Tigers were in a defensive battle the entire night.

The Tigers got on the scoreboard early taking a 1-0 lead on the Cats in the 1st but neither team was able to do anything for much of the game.

In the 5^th, the Cats were able to take the lead on a big 2 RBI homerun by Luke Heyer scoring Troy Squires.

Both teams shut each other down the rest of the night and the Cats went on to get a big 2-1 win in the series opener. Winning pitcher was Sean Hjelle (6-3).

Game 2 was a much different looking game than what we saw in game one as a combined 25 runs were scored by the two teams.

Unfortunately, Kentucky played from behind the entire game, but they never stopped fighting.

Missouri took an early 3-0 lead, but the Cats were able to make it a 3-2 game in the 3^rd after a Ryan Shinn homer and an RBI single by Troy Squires.

The Tigers added 3 runs in the 4^th and 3 more in the 5^th to make it a 9-2 ballgame going into the 6^th.

In the 6^th, the Cats strung together some hits and had some help from the Tiger defense as they went on a rally and scored 6 runs in the 6^th to once again cut the Missouri lead to one, 9-8.

However, The Cats were never able to get the game tied and the Tigers added 5 runs in the 8^th and the Cats added 3 in the inning but fell short, losing Game 2, 14-11.

The rubber match Sunday was a big one for Kentucky and it got off to a good start. After the Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1^st the Cats tie it with an RBI single by Kole Cottam and then took a 4-1 lead off a 3-run homer by Luke Heyer.

The Cats would add one run in the second and fourth to make it a 6-1 lead before the Tiger started their comeback.

Missouri scored two runs in the 5^th and followed that up with two runs in the 6^th to make it a one run game 6-5.

In the 7^th, the Tigers tied up the game and then took the lead on a grand slam making it a 10-6 lead going to the 8^th.

In the 8^th, Ryan Shinn homered to left making it a 10-7 game. Then with the bases loaded and only 1 out Kole Cottam stepped in and returned the favor by hitting a huge grand slam to give the Cats an 11-10 lead.

The Cats were able to take care of business in the 9^th and would go on to take the series with an 11-10 win over Missouri. Winning pitcher was Brett Marshall (1-0).

Next week is yet another very important series for the Cats as they travel to Knoxville for a three-game series with Tennessee. All three games can be seen on the SEC Network alternate channel.

Go Cats!