Cats look to make late-season push

The UK baseball team can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and now it’s time for the final push.
After a seven-game losing streak and three straight Southeastern Conference series sweeps, the Cats (21-17, 6-12 SEC) are winners of three of their last four, including a road victory over in-state rival Louisville. Now the Cats have four SEC series left on the docket and will need to make one final push in order to qualify for the SEC tournament.

“We’re plenty talented and I think we have a great chance to make a push,” freshman Andy Burns said.

After two close losses at home to Georgia on April 10 and 11, UK baseball head coach Gary Henderson changed the batting order around to try and freshen things up and get a spark for the team. Burns said while you can’t read too much into the lineup, it has worked out well.

Freshman Andy Burns takes a swing during one of UK’s early-season losses against Georgia. The Cats have won three of their last four games. Photo by Adam Wolffbrandt | Staff

In the second game since the batting order change, the Cats won a dramatic come-from-behind victory on the road against Louisville. Early in the season, the Cats were on the right side of many come-from-behind victories, including three walk-off home runs. After that run died down and the Cats found themselves unable to regain their flare for the dramatics, Burns said the Louisville game was just what they needed.

“It was huge,” Burns said. “We were in the same situation and we pulled it out. It felt like we got the monkey off our back, and get past the losing streak.”

For the Cats, the road hasn’t been easy. After playing a non-conference schedule that was more challenging than past years, the Cats opened the conference portion of the schedule playing some of the best teams in the SEC. In their first five SEC series, the Cats played three of the top four teams in the eastern division and two of the top three teams in the western division. Among the remaining teams for the Cats, are two of the bottom three teams in the western division, and Tennessee, the bottom team in the eastern division.

Burns said every team in the SEC is a quality opponent, but also said they did play a very tough beginning portion of the schedule.

“We did play the top of the league in the first weekends,” Burns said. “It was tough, but as we get deeper into the schedule we’re getting better. We’re starting to play the middle of the road and lower tier teams and it will help a lot. We have the ability to beat anyone we play.”
One of the keys to the Cats’ resurgence on the diamond has been the play of junior left-handed pitcher James Paxton. Paxton was dominant at the beginning of the season, jumping out to a 4-0 start. Paxton’s next two starts were losses to Georgia and Ole Miss where the southpaw got hit around for 14 runs in seven innings of play. Recently however, Paxton has gotten back into the way he played earlier in the season and the Cats have benefited from it.

“Our starting pitching has been great all year,” Burns said. “Guys will have bad starts, it’s part of the game. The same goes for Rusin and Meyer, sometimes they’ve pitched well and we haven’t given them the run support we should have.”
After the Cats’ 22-run performance on Sunday against Mississippi State, the tide looks like it may be beginning to turn back in the Cats’ favor. With only four SEC series left, the Cats’ late season push is depending on it.