A wild series against South Carolina saw UK attempt to pull together another late game comeback. In the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and zero outs, the Cats (16-9, 4-5 Southeastern Conference) could only plate one run and lost 4-2.

“We should have been able to do more with what we had there in the ninth inning,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said. “If you wait until the ninth inning every time, sometimes it’s not going to work, and obviously it didn’t tonight, but we should have been able to do more with that.”

The Cats, who found themselves down 20-7 in the first game of the series,only to lose 20-19, experienced a little bit of everything against the Gamecocks. In game two of the Saturday doubleheader, the Cats got their 16th victory of the season on a walk-off home run by freshman third baseman Andy Burns.

On a cold, wet and blustery Sunday afternoon at Cliff Hagan Stadium, the Cats couldn’t find their rhythm at the plate as Gamecocks pitcher Blake Cooper threw 126 pitches in a complete game performance. Freshman right handed pitcher Alex Meyer took the mound for the Cats and finally settled in after a shaky first few innings.

“He had noticeably better rhythm there on the mound,” Henderson said. “Better body control, confidence and presence – all that stuff got better as the game went on I thought, which I was really pleased to see.”

What looked to be a tumultuous second inning for Meyer turned out to be harmless. Meyer allowed the first three South Carolina batters to reach base and continued to struggle in finding the strike zone. Meyer then struck out the next batter and picked off the runner on second base to regain his confidence. Meyer then got South Carolina shortstop Bobby Haney to hit a weak grounder back to the mound and the once disastrous inning ended with zero runs on the board.

In the seventh inning however, the Cats couldn’t get themselves out of a jam. UK junior relief pitchers Tyler Henry and Clint Tilford allowed the Gamecocks to score three runs in the seventh inning off four hits. The three runs proved to be more than enough for the cold UK bats to overcome and the game was sealed.

“I think your bullpen is always a work in progress, personally, at every level of baseball until you really have older established guys,” Henderson said “But I’m not disappointed with the bullpen or the pitching.”

The Cats have now lost five of their last six and are below. 500 in the SEC standings, but believe there are still positive aspects of the South Carolina series to take away. Junior first baseman Gunner Glad, who hit three home runs in the first game, said the Cats’ ability to come back in game one and come through in game two speaks to the character of the ball club.

In a series that had a little bit of everything Henderson said the glass is still half-full and they’re competing well, but they need more wins to show for it.

“It was a tough series with drastically different games,” Henderson said. “I thought their kids competed well, I thought ours did too. It’s a grind, we’re only three weekends in with seven to go.”