Kentucky baseball takes key series vs. Georgia

Now that’s more like it! Kentucky baseball is trending in the right direction after a 3-1 week highlighted by a series win over the #17 Georgia Bulldogs in part of a massive homestand in Kentucky Proud Park.

After losing 4-2 in the Friday night game, the Cats won Saturday 10-8 with a big comeback rally to even it up 1-1 and carried that momentum over Sunday with a 18-5 rout that greatly improved the team’s NCAA Tournament chances. They now are 4-5 against ranked competition, with series wins over TCU and Georgia and three losses on the road to Arkansas. Here’s everything you need to know:

• The ‘Cats are now 17-8 overall and 2-4 in the SEC.
• They are 14-4 at home and 3-4 away.
• In Sunday’s rubber match, Wildcat catcher Alonzo Rubalcaba started the game off with a grand slam in the first inning that helped the ‘Cats score their most runs in an SEC game since a 19-run game at South Carolina in 2017.
• Kentucky baseball now has 1,999 victories in program history—Tuesday’s game against Eastern Kentucky can get them over the 2K mark.
• UK has scored in 268 of 271 games in Mingione’s tenure.
• Coach Mingione now has 160 wins, which is good for fifth on UK’s all-time list. With five more wins he can move into fourth.
• UK is 31-of-34 on stolen base attempts this season.
• UK pitchers have struck out 267 batters in 25 games—a rate of more than ten batters per game.

Currently, the #24 and #25 teams are Gonzaga and UConn, who have records of 16-6 and 17-5, so UK is hovering just below good company. Coming up this week is another 4-game stretch at home, but after a take-care-of-business game against Eastern Kentucky comes a monster weekend series with the top-10 Ole Miss Rebels. It’s never easy in the Southeastern Conference. Go ‘Cats!