Baseball’s bullpen finally steps up in key game

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By Kevin Erpenbeck

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the entire season, the Cats have waited for competent relief pitching to hold a lead in a game they deserved to win.

Now they can breathe a sigh of relief. Relief pitching  showed up  in a big way in the Cats’ 4-2 road win over Louisville.

UK needed consistent pitching and received it from freshmen Logan Salow and Zack Brown. They finally did the deed they had failed to accomplish in previous games.

The young pitchers constantly faced dire situations in the game Tuesday, with Louisville having eight runners in scoring position. Every time, the relievers rose to the challenge, putting up zeros in the run column for each inning they pitched.

Head coach Gary Henderson couldn’t have been more impressed with the success of the two freshmen.

“That’s six innings of freshmen pitching,” Henderson said. “That’s significant on the road. There’s no question about that. Those kids are really getting better.”

Improvement is something that UK needs at this point in the season. The Cats were feeling the pressure of injuries on their pitching staff after losing four of their last six games. Pressure resulted in mediocre performances on the mound.

But they put that behind them for a significant game at Louisville, resulting in a confidence-boosting win.

That confidence is invaluable to young players like Salow and Brown. They needed a win like this to build and look back upon to keep the success going down the stretch.

All that Henderson wants to see now is consistency, and for that same relief pitching success to show up in a conference game.

“We’re very glad to win against an in-state team, but it’s not more important than a league win,” Henderson said.

If they learn from the successful outing they had on the road, then they’ll surely rise to that challenge. Fifteen of the Cats final 17 games are against SEC teams. Only six of those 15 games are at home.