Kentucky Baseball rallies to defeat Canisius College in series opener

On a misty and cold afternoon in Lexington, the Kentucky Wildcats baseball team picked up their third straight win, as they rallied to score five runs in the seventh innings and defeat Canisius College, 10-2.

After a quiet first two innings, it was Canisius who struck first blood in the top of the third.

With two men on base, Mark McKenna roped a two-run double down the left field line to score both runners and provide the Griffins with a 2-0 lead.

The third inning also saw Kentucky get on the board for the first time of the afternoon. TJ Collett ripped an infield single that came off the bat at 102 miles per hour to score Zeke Lewis.

Kentucky had a chance to tie the game or take the lead but, both Ryan Shinn and Dalton Reed struck out looking with runners on the corners as the inning came to an end with Canisius still on top by a score of 2-1.

It remained such until the bottom of the seventh inning, as the Cats put runners on the corners with one man out.

Pinch hitter Jaren Shelby hit a fly ball that was dropped by the Canisius right fielder and allowing Grant Macciocchi to score and tie the game. The dropped ball allowed the flood gates to open.

Collett roped a single to left field to score the second Kentucky run of the inning and give the Wildcats their first lead of the day at 3-2.

Later that inning, Dalton Reed hit a sacrifice fly to right field, and Coltyn Kessler ripped a two-run single with two men out extend the lead to 6-2.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Wildcats added four insurance runs.

Ryan Shinn smoked an RBI double to left, Reed and Kessler hit sacrifice flies, and a wild pitch scored Elliot Curtis as Kentucky took a commanding 10-2 lead.

With a big lead, the Cats were able to close out the Griffs and earn their third straight win.

Kentucky ace Zack Thompson took a no-decision but did record a career-high 11 strikeouts in six innings of work.

The win went to Cats reliever Daniel Harper (2-0), as Kyle Warner (1-1) took the loss for Canisius.

Kentucky (6-3) and Canisius (3-5) will finish their three game series tomorrow as they will play a doubleheader with the first game starting at 12:00 pm EST and Game 2 starting 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 1.

Both games can be watched can be watched on SEC Network plus and listened to on the UK Sports Network.