UK baseball rallies in the ninth inning in a thrilling 4-2 victory over Kent State
May 31, 2014
By Joshua Huff
The rally caps were donned Saturday as UK baseball used a ninth inning surge to roar ahead of Kent State in a thrilling 4-2 victory that saw stellar pitching from both sides.
The loss ended the season for Kent State and insured UK another day of baseball in the Louisville Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said. “ I felt like we would come around, I always do. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, but most of the time with this group it has, especially offensively.”
With their season on the line and momentum with Kent State, the Cats squared their shoulders and unleashed a haymaker straight to the jaw of Kent State. For eight innings, Kent State pitcher Nick Jensen-Clegg befuddled and frustrated the helpless Cats. With an outstanding breaking-ball and a devastating changeup, Jensen-Clegg held UK to three hits through eight, but with UK on the ropes, the Golden Flashes dropped their gloves and the Cats pounced.
“He did such a good job getting ahead,” junior Thomas Bernal said of Jensen-Clegg. “His best pitch was his changeup, and we got in trouble staying off of it.”
Junior Austin Cousino led off the ninth inning for UK. The Cats were looking for their first leadoff hit of the game after three, two out singles. That trend continued as Cousino dimmed the comeback hopes of the UK faithful with his second pop out of the game. All eyes then turned to junior Max Kuhn, who up until that point was hitless. With one swing of the bat, Kuhn changed the momentum of the game as he hit a sharp single to left. Jensen-Clegg then made his first mistake of the game with a balk that sent Kuhn to second with SEC Player of The Year A.J. Reed at the plate.
Instead of walking Reed, the Golden Flashes decided to face him, and paid dearly for that decision. After hitting the ball hard the entire game, Reed was due for one to drop, and with his season and career on the line, Reed delivered. Stroking a runs batted in double to center that scored Kuhn and set the stage for one of the greatest rallies in UK’s season.
“I thought that they would walk me after the balk,” Reed said. “They elected not to and we’re thankful for that, and we got the double.”
The next batter was sophomore Ka’ai Tom who was 0-for-3 and went to 0-and-4 after he struck out against fastball pitcher John Fasola. Senior Micheal Thomas and freshman Storm Wilson both were walked to load the bases for Bernal. Down one, their season on the line and the tying run 90 feet away, Bernal hit the most important pop fly of his UK career.
The ball lazily arched its way over the diamond and slowly dropped into shallow left field, just out of the reach of left fielder Troy Summers who was playing warning track deep. That two out, two RBI double sent the crowd into a frenzy as UK pulled ahead 3-2. Senior Matt Reida added a level of comfort with an RBI double that scored an insurance run.
The game then came down to Reed, who after a terrible first inning that saw Kent State score two runs, settled down and pitched an outstanding game. The Golden Flashes started off the bottom of the ninth with a single, but with the tying run at the plate, Reed struck out the next batter and forced shortstop Zach Beckner into a game ending double play.
“Big time players step up when you need them and we needed A.J. (Reed) today and he delivered,” Henderson said.
UK moves ahead to Sunday where they will face the loser of the Louisville vs. Kansas game.
