Cardinals big inning too much for UK: Louisville plates six in the seventh to win in Lexington

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What started out looking like a typical game between UK and Louisville quickly turned into a nightmare for a struggling UK squad.

A tie game entering the seventh inning turned into a six-run deficit for the Cats, with five of the six runs in the seventh coming unearned. The Cardinals followed up the seventh inning with three more runs in the eighth, and the 11-2 final dropped the Cats’ record to .500 at 22-22.

The ugly loss snaps a three-game streak between the rivals decided by a single run, including a walk-off home run by junior center fielder Keenan Wiley in the 12th inning of last year’s game at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

UK junior outfielder Keenan Wiley gets tagged out at home by Louisville’s catcher Jeff Arnold during UK’s 11-2 loss on Tuesday at Cliff Hagan Stadium. The loss drops the Cats to 22-22 on the season. Photo by Britney McIntosh | Staff

“It was frustrating,” Wiley said of Tuesday’s loss. “We had a good performance out of Clint (Tilford) again, it’s just one or two plays, it seems like, every game that’s haunting us right now. I don’t know; we can’t get over that.”

Tilford went 5.1 innings, the longest outing he’s had this season. He allowed a single earned run and also tied a season-high of five strikeouts. Tilford was pulled early in the sixth for sophomore Logan Darnell.

Darnell looked to be in the zone from the start, throwing seven strikes in his first eight pitches to get out of the inning. In the seventh, however, the Cardinals got to Darnell’s pitches and two UK (22-22, 7-14 Southeastern Conference) errors allowed Louisville (30-13, 12-6 Big East) to break the game open.

“We have to learn how to step up and stop it when it starts snowballing,” Wiley said. “We’ll get it figured out; there’s no doubt in my mind about that.”

The Cats got on the board in the first inning, taking a one run lead without registering a hit. Louisville tied the game at one in the fifth inning before the Cats took it back over again in the bottom half of the fifth. The exchange of runs continued in the sixth with another one run inning by the Cardinals to re-tie the game.

“I was really pleased with Clint Tilford,” UK baseball head coach Gary Henderson said. “His effort and his performance I thought were outstanding.”

The wheels came off for the Cats in the seventh inning and the deficit proved to be too much. A bloop single to shallow right field by Louisville designated hitter Alec Lowrey started the inning for the Cardinals. A passed ball, one out and two singles later, and Lowrey was trotting home pumping his fist as the Cardinals took their first lead of the game. Despite scoring six runs, the Cardinals never had an extra base hit in the inning.

The power for the Cardinals came to life in the eighth inning when the 2009 Sporting News Preseason National Player of the Year stepped up to the plate. Facing a one ball, one strike count, Cardinals third baseman Chris Dominguez jacked a ball deep over the left field wall extending the Cardinals lead to nine.

“I was really disappointed with how we responded in the seventh inning,” Henderson said. “We led it off with the two errors to get it going and then a walk and another error. It was just a complete lack of confidence from our kids when the game got a little tight.”

The Cats relief pitching has come into question as they’ve allowed 46 runs, 12 of which were unearned in the 27 innings pitched in the last two weeks. Not to be lost in that are the errors that “seem to come in bunches,” as Henderson said.

“We have not done a good job of stopping the negative emotion and the negative roll once it starts rolling down hill on us,” Henderson said. “That’s something if we’re going to make the run here in conference, we’re going to have to get handled.”