UK baseball enjoys record-setting series

By Justin Chartrand

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Sophomore Kyle Barrett and senior A.J. Reed improved their hitting streaks to 18 games as No. 22 UK Baseball knocked off Ball State University 17-2 to win the third game of the series Sunday at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

UK made the first dent in the scoreboard in the second inning with two outs as sophomore Dorian Hairston singled and drove in a run to give the Cats a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second.

A two-run homer from junior Max Kuhn extended UK’s lead to 7-0 going into the fifth inning.

“It felt good, first one of the year so it’s good to get that off my chest and hopefully I can get a few more,” Kuhn said.

UK junior pitcher Andrew Nelson ran into trouble in the top of the fifth inning, but halted the Ball State scoring attempt by tallying up three straight outs to keep the Cardinals scoreless.

“That (inning) was the key was to keep a good feel down in the zone and stay relaxed,” Nelson said.

Senior Micheal Thomas smashed his second homerun of the season in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Cats continued to tear into the Cardinals pitching, extending the lead to 12-0.

After six scoreless innings from Nelson, UK head coach Gary Henderson brought in sophomore Sam Mahar.

Mahar gave up a two-run homer to Ball State senior T.J. Weir, erasing the Cardinals’ zero on the scoreboard.

The bleeding did not stop, however, for the Cardinals as the Cats retaliated and tacked on nine runs in the eighth inning to put the Cats up 21-2.

UK’s onslaught of the Cardinals ended at 26-3 on Sunday. The Cats scored a school record 58 runs total in the three game series, scoring 24 on Saturday and eight runs on Friday.

“When you’re going well, the things that you’re doing are the basics,” Henderson said. “We just did a nice job of taking advantage.”

UK is less than a week away from starting conference play against the University of Alabama. Coach Henderson still sees room for improvement.

“We’ve got to continue to work hard to improve ourselves on the mound and defensively late in games,” Henderson said. “Those are two very clear areas that need to be addressed and improved upon.”

UK looks to keep the bats rolling as it travels to face No. 17 Indiana University Tuesday at 4:05 p.m.