When Chris Rusin settles in, he really settles in.

In a 15-4 win for the UK baseball team (4-2) over Western Michigan, the senior left-handed pitcher from Canton, Mich., set a new career-high in strikeouts with 12 in five innings of work. The 12 strikeouts are the most by a UK pitcher in a game since 2004 when James Rodriguez had a dozen against East Tennessee State.

After a shaky first inning for the Cats that saw them commit two fielding errors amongst the first three batters faced, Rusin took control of the game by striking out 11 batters in the first four innings pitched—including six in a row. It was a performance redshirt sophomore Chris Wade says the Cats have come to expect.

“He’s unbelievable. You know he’s going to bring it every day,” Wade said. “He didn’t disappoint today, he threw great and it was great to see.”

Rusin’s performance comes on the heels of one of his worst statistical outings of his career on Feb. 22 against Coastal Carolina. In that game and on Sunday, Rusin faced adverse weather conditions with strong winds.

Junior right-handed pitcher Tyler Henry came in for Rusin to start the sixth inning and picked up where the southpaw had left off, striking out four batters in 2.2 innings pitched. For the game, the Cats struck out 18 batters, the most since 2002 when UK started keeping single game records.

The Cats’ four-run lead was threatened in the eighth inning when the Broncos loaded the bases with two outs. UK head coach Gary Henderson then went to the bullpen and freshman right-handed pitcher Braden Kapteyn. Kapteyn promptly stepped up to the mound and forced the Broncos into a hard ground out to Wade.

“I was really looking forward to putting (Kapteyn) in a spot like that,” Henderson said. “I’ve been wanting to do that and see how he would respond. Clearly that’s a big out for us. The game is in the balance right there – or certainly the lead is – and he responded really well and I’m looking forward to putting him in those situations again.”

From there, the Cats put the game away with an eight-run eighth inning that put them up 15-3. The Cats have put up 31 runs in two games against Western Michigan, with only three homeruns needed. In addition to the offense, the Cats have gotten two great performances from their starting pitchers thus far, with junior James Paxton striking out a career-high 11 batters in six innings on Friday.

“We’ve had outstanding starting pitching from James (Paxton) and Chris,” Henderson said. “We’re really pleased with it and we’re going to be looking for those two guys to give us those types of efforts every weekend.”

Make-up game scheduled for Monday

The four-game series against Western Michigan was cut in half after the scheduled Saturday double-header was canceled due to the threat of inclement weather in the central Kentucky area. The Cats will make up one of those two games on Monday at 3 p.m. with the starting pitcher still uncertain Henderson said.