By David Schuh

The UK baseball team did not play its best game, but held off a resilient Morehead State team to win 3-2 Tuesday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

Freshman A.J. Reed took the mound for the Cats in his first career start and did not disappoint. Reed gave up one run on four hits in six innings. However, it was the offense that seemed to be a little off.

A leadoff double by freshman center fielder Austin Cousino was wasted in the first inning. That became a theme for UK throughout, as it left 10 runners on base.

The Cats again left a runner at third in the second. But UK head coach Gary Henderson played some small ball in the bottom of the third to get the offense going.

Cousino led off with a single and stole second a few pitches later. Junior Zac Zellers was then walked to put two runners on with no outs.

With junior Luke Maile at the plate, Cousino and Zellers attempted a double steal and were both safe. Maile singled up the middle to score the runners, putting UK up 2-1.

After Maile stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch, junior Cameron Flynn walked to give the Cats runners on the corners with two outs.

Henderson again went to the double steal, this one however a bit more unconventional.

As Flynn took off, the MSU catcher threw down to second to get him in a run-down, at which point Maile took off for home, beating the throw from the shortstop to extend the lead to 3-1.

“We thought that we might be able to use that part of the game,” Henderson said. “We hadn’t used it much in the first two weekends but we wanted to get the kids running a little bit. That was a good opportunity to do it.”

From there, the offense stalled. The Cats only managed three hits the rest of the game, clinging to a two-run lead.

That lead was shortened in the top of the eighth when MSU left fielder Taylor Pickens hit a solo home run.

After the next batter walked, MSU had a runner on first and two outs when third baseman Andrew Deeds hit a line drive into the right-center field gap. The runner rounded third as right fielder Zellers relayed the ball to sophomore J.T. Riddle, who gunned down the runner at home to preserve the slim lead.

“Z (Zellers) and I weren’t going to catch the ball, but Zac’s got a better arm,” Cousino said. “He got it, Riddle threw a cannon home and we got ourselves a really big play.”

Trevor Gott entered the game for UK in the top of the ninth to go for the save. After issuing a one-out walk, Gott struck out the final two batters to shut the door and give the Cats the win.

One of the keys to the team’s success so far has been the emergence of Cousino at the top of the order. As a freshman, Henderson likes the excitement he can bring to the team.

“Austin has energy and he pays attention at a high level,” Henderson said. “He’s a little bit more advanced in terms of awareness than your regular freshman. Let’s hope he gets better and better and builds on what he’s doing.”