Cats looking to stop their skid against No. 3 Bulldogs

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The UK baseball team has Georgia on its mind.

The No. 3 Bulldogs (26-6, 8-4 Southeastern Conference) are the leaders of the SEC Eastern Division and are coming to Cliff Hagan Stadium on Friday to begin a three-game series with the reeling Cats (18-13, 4-8 SEC).

After jumping out of the gate with a 15-4 record, the Cats have hit a speed bump in their season, losing nine of their last 12 games. With the division-leading Bulldogs coming to Lexington, UK knows they’ll have to play their best to get a series win.

“We’re going to need outstanding starting pitching performances from our three starting pitchers,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said. “We’ll need to do a good job of having competitive bats and make sure that we continue to play good defense.”

The Cats, though not very high in the SEC standings as of now, say they do pay attention to the standings a little bit.

Sophomore Logan Darnell said the Cats must “play (their) game” to beat No. 3 Georgia this weekend. Photo by Kristin Sherrard | Staff

Senior third baseman Chris McClendon said it’s something UK pays attention to because they’re playing to win but can’t control what other teams are doing. He said they have to do what they can to control their own destiny. And with the Bulldogs sitting four games above the Cats in the standings, the Cats have that control.

“It’s always a good chance to make a statement when you have a team as talented as Georgia coming in,” McClendon said. “We’ve been playing bad lately, but as bad as we’ve been playing we’re a game out of third (in the Eastern Division). So that’s enough to keep your head up. We just have to go out and do what we do and we’re going to be fine, we’re going to get this ship turned around and we’re looking forward to these upcoming games.”

Junior Rich Poythress leads the Bulldogs at the plate. Poythress, who plays both first and third base, is among the top five in the SEC in hits, RBI and home runs during conference play.

For the Cats, recent history against Georgia hasn’t produced many fond memories. Having dropped 11 of their last 14 against the Bulldogs, the young Cats will look to make new memories in a series that could potentially turn their season back around. The Cats said they will focus on Georgia the same way they focus on all their SEC opponents.

“Our league is so tough that most of the time there isn’t a whole lot of difference (among opponents),” Henderson said. “All the teams that we play are tough, Georgia’s very talented, and they’ve got really good pitching. This thing is all about us doing the things that we can do and taking care of our business and if we do that we’ll be fine.”

The Cats will keep the same pitching rotation as they had last weekend against Mississippi. Freshman righty Alex Meyer will take the bump on Friday, with senior southpaw Chris Rusin starting Saturday and junior southpaw James Paxton closing the series.

“They have a great team, a young team just like us, really talented,” sophomore relief pitcher Logan Darnell said. “All we have to do is go out there and play our game. We have some of the three best starting pitchers in the league in my opinion going for us, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t win.”