Mason Hazelwood done for the season

The Kentucky Wildcats baseball team has been off to a great start this season. With an 18-4 record, the team is heading into the heart of their conference schedule, and they’ll do so without their most experienced starter.

Derek Terry of Cats Pause released the news that LHP Mason Hazelwood’s season would be done following a UCL injury.

Hazelwood, a Salvisa (KY) native, is in his senior season and was the most experienced starter in the rotation for the Cats this season.

Before the injury, Hazelwood was putting that experience to good use posting a 3-0 record with a 2.34 ERA. He was also second on the team in innings pitched with 25.2 on the season.

Nick Mingione had Hazelwood penciled in as the Saturday starter each weekend, but with the injury, will now be turning to the highly touted freshman Ryan Hagenow.

This season, Hagenow has been a mid-week starter and has posted a 1-0 record with a 1.00 ERA through five starts. The kicker here is he hasn’t went longer than four innings this season.

With the bullpen struggling at times this season, it will be key to get few more innings out of each start as the season continues.

Ranked as one of the top players in the country coming out of high school last season, Hagenow will get a chance to show what he can do in the weekend rotation a year earlier than expected. He will join Cole Stupp and Zach Lee in the rotation this weekend as the Cats travel to Starkville to face Mississippi State.