Cats swept by Rebels over the weekend

The UK baseball team (18-12, 4-8 Southeastern Conference) had a rough weekend in Oxford, Miss., against Ole Miss. The Cats dropped each game in the three-game set, only scoring six runs the entire series.

The starting pitchers for the Cats in the series were freshman Alex Meyer, senior Chris Rusin and junior James Paxton. Meyer had the best game of his young and highly publicized career in the series opener, going 6.1 innings and striking out a career-high 10 batters. The Cats jumped out early, but gave up the lead and the game on an error in the eighth inning that plated two unearned runs for Ole Miss in a 4-3 win.

In the second game, Rusin allowed six runs in five innings of work, a stark contrast to his previous four outings were he pitched every out except four. The Cats were demoralized by big third and seventh inning performances by Ole Miss. The Rebels scored all 10 of their runs in the two innings of work.

In the series finale, the Cats were held scoreless by Ole Miss starting pitcher Scott Bittle, who retired the first 14 batters of the game. The Cats were only able to muster three hits the entire game and were shutout 8-0.

The proverbial drawing board will be the place UK looks to next, as they have now dropped eight of their last 11 games after starting the season with a 15-4 record and 3-2 conference record.

The series sweep moves the Cats down to fifth place in the tough Eastern Division of the SEC. UK will play a midweek home-and-away series with Western Kentucky on Tuesday and Wednesday. The next SEC series for the Cats will be against the current leader in the SEC East, Georgia.