#7 Louisville beats Kentucky to sweep season series

Tuesday night the second and final battle of the 2019 Battle of the Bluegrass between the Kentucky Wildcats and the No. 7 Louisville Cardinals took place at Kentucky Proud Park, as the two clubs took a break from conference play to battle for the state bragging rights.

The game could not have gotten off to a better start for the Wildcats.

After starting pitcher, Dillon Marsh picked off Tyler Fitzgerald to end a scoreless top of the first inning Kentucky got on the board quickly in the bottom of the first.

Senior Ryan Shinn crushed a solo home run to centerfield to give the Cats an early 1-0 lead.

The early lead would not last for long however, as with two outs in the top of the second inning, Justin Lavey hit a blooper that dropped in the perfect place resulting in an RBI double to tie the game at one.

Luckily for the Cats, they retook the lead just as quickly as Louisville tied the game up. In the bottom half of the second inning, Breydon Daniel slugged a two-run home run into the Louisville Bullpen to put Kentucky up 3-1.

The Cats’ big second inning would not end there, as Coltyn Kessler drew a bases-loaded walk and Zeke Lewis scored on a wild pitch to push the Cats lead to 5-1.

Like earlier, however, the lead would not last for long. The Cardinals cut the lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the third knocking Marsh out of the game, and in the top of the fourth, struck for three runs off the Wildcat bullpen to take a 6-5 lead.

In the top of the fourth the Cardinals would continue to extend their lead, as both Alex Binelas, and Lavey slapped run-scoring singles, and Zeke Pinkham drilled a two-run home run to right field to push the Cardinals lead to 10-5.

With the Cardinals bullpen holding Kentucky in check and their offense rolling, they were able to cruise to a 18-6 victory clinching a sweep of the 2019 two-game season set between the rivals.

The Wildcats (20-17) will be back in action Thursday night as they open up a three game series with the No. Tennessee Volunteers at Kentucky Proud Park.

All three games can be watched on SEC Network + and can be listened to on the UK Sports Network.