UK baseball needs to shape up in three key areas
April 14, 2014
The season’s end is just a month away, and UK baseball is sitting with a 7-8 SEC record after losing two of three games to Missouri.
While a losing conference record is good enough for third-best in the SEC East, the Cats will have to separate themselves from the pack if they want a chance to win the conference championship in May.
That means winning the remaining series on the schedule. The Cats have Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Auburn and Georgia left, teams that either share their conference record or are below it. It’s imperative that UK plays well enough to win these series.
UK has to shore up three key aspects in its game that have doomed it in previous conference games: consistent starting pitching, fielding and relief pitching.
Starting pitching
On some weekends, the Cats can throw out a starting pitcher and get five innings of quality pitching out of him.
The rest of the weekend can be unpredictable.
Junior Chandler Shepherd, the usual Saturday starter, has a 3.61 ERA on the year but was the primary reason the Cats lost against Vanderbilt on March 29. He gave up five runs in the first two innings, putting his team in a hole early.
On the flip side, Shepherd does have five wins on the season. He’s currently out with an off-the-field injury, but he has to be consistent when he returns to the starting rotation.
Fielding
The fielding has been atrocious for UK as of late, and it continues to haunt the Cats in close games.
The Cats made five errors in their rubber match with Missouri, two of which came in the ninth inning when Missouri led by a run.
The errors cost them four more runs and sealed their series loss against the Tigers.
“You make five errors on a weekend (and) the chances of winning go way down,” Henderson said. “Clearly we threw it away today.”
They’ll continue to throw away vital games if they lack focus on the field.
Relief pitching
UK’s relief pitching has been worse than its starting pitching all season.
This was evident in its opening game against Missouri. After scoring five runs in the seventh inning, the Cats looked to seal the game with a one-run advantage over the Tigers. But Missouri’s three-run home run in the eighth inning changed that, and another game was given away late.
The UK bullpen has a 3.80 ERA on the year, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Effectively closing out games has to be a top priority for this team if it wants to win the games it should.
With no team taking the SEC lead by the reins (first place Alabama holds a 10-5 conference record), UK still has time to fix its mistakes and move up in conference standings, regardless of the past five weeks.
