Column: Bat Cats still control their own destiny after loss

The UK baseball team has nine conference games remaining, but has to hope that its chance to make the Southeastern Conference Tournament and NCAA Tournament hasn’t already passed them.

The Cats sit two games behind South Carolina for the eighth and final spot in the SEC Tournament, and their road to Hoover, Ala., is further complicated by the presence of Auburn between the Cats and the Gamecocks in the standings.

“We are aware of where we are,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said.  “The bottom line is we need to play well Friday night.  We’ve got six home games coming up.  If we do well in those, we’ll be right in the middle of it in that last weekend.”

In the latest NCAA RPI rankings, the Cats were No. 33, but those rankings were released on April 21 and do not include UK’s 1-5 record against Alabama, Lipscomb, Evansville and Louisville.

Nor does it include the 11-2 thrashing Louisville handed UK Tuesday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
In an online chat with readers Monday, Baseball America college baseball analyst Aaron Fitt said all eight teams in the SEC Tournament have a shot to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

“I think the SEC could get between six and nine bids, but seven or eight is probably the most likely,” Fitt said.  “The ninth team, Auburn, is in a lot of trouble.”

Since the Cats are currently ranked No. 10 in the SEC, they’re not even in the NCAA Tournament discussion.
The Cats need to take care of business against cellar-dwelling Tennessee and win a pivotal series against Auburn to get back in the SEC Tournament picture.  UK closes the season with three games in Gainesville, Fla.  A series win against SEC East second-place Florida might be enough to reignite UK’s diminishing NCAA Tournament chances.

“You can’t really pay attention to a lot of that stuff,” senior infielder Chris McClendon said.  “It’s nice to know we’re two games out with as bad as we’ve been playing.”

With winnable games left on the schedule, the Cats appear able to still right the ship, but the bigger question is will they?

Over the past 10 games, the Cats’ bullpen has surrendered 46 runs in 28 innings.  While those numbers are hardly defensible, don’t blame the poor performance solely on the relief pitching.  The Cats’ defense has done its fair share of damage since 12 of those 46 runs are unearned.

With two key components like the bullpen and defense struggling so mightily, UK doesn’t appear ready to turn around its recent slide any time soon.

“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 a run here in conference, that we’re going to have to get handled.”

The lone beacon of hope is the trio of talented starters UK boasts in its weekend rotation.  Senior Chris Rusin is coming off a complete game victory against Alabama.  Junior James Paxton continues to be listed among the first-round prospects for the Major League Baseball amateur players draft and freshman Alex Meyer struck out 11 in Alabama and is rumored to be in the mix for the No. 1 pick after his junior season.

Even that promising rotation has been thrown in the air after Meyer was hit by a line drive on the shin in his last start against Alabama.  Meyer remained in the game Sunday but was walking on crutches Tuesday afternoon.

With those arms, anything is possible, but the Cats won’t be comfortable with any leads after their recent late-inning play.

The Cats haven’t done themselves any favors, but the chance for a late season run is still there.

“Things are actually relatively favorable for us to make a run,” Henderson said.

The common theme among UK players’ comments Tuesday was that it didn’t matter what other teams in the tournament race did, if UK played to its potential, none of that would matter.

“I guess you pay a little bit of attention [to the standings],” junior outfielder Keenan Wiley said.  “It’s more about us, we’ve been right in every game, I feel like.  We just have to keep focusing on us and not worrying about what everybody else is doing.”

Despite the recent poor play, these Cats control their own destiny.
Jon Hale is a journalism senior. E-mail jhale@kykernel.com.