UK baseball falls to late-inning home runs
Outfielder Marcus Carson (15) bats vs. Indiana on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 in Lexington, Ky. Indiana won 11-7. Photo by Hunter Mitchell
April 1, 2015
By Derek Terry
Late home runs from Brad Hartong and Logan Sowers in the eighth and ninth innings helped Indiana rally to beat UK 11-7 on Tuesday.
The Cats led 7-5 going into the seventh inning, but the Hoosiers scored two runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to complete the comeback.
“We didn’t pitch well enough today to win,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said. “Nor did we play defense well enough to win.”
Indiana jumped on the board first in the top of the second inning when third baseman Isaiah Pasteur hit a two-out, line-drive single to score two unearned runs for the Hoosiers.
UK quickly however in the next frame, scoring five runs on seven hits to take a 5-2 lead.
The Hoosiers got a run back in the top of the third to cut the Cats’ lead and chase starter Zach Pop from the game after 2.2 innings.
The Cats came back in the bottom of the third when senior third baseman Thomas Bernal doubled down the left field line to score sophomore right fielder Marcus Carson from first base. Carson finished 2-for-4 at the plate with two runs batted in to extend his hitting streak to three games.
“We came out a little sluggish today,” Carson said. “I think we were still hyped up from last weekend and just didn’t get the job done today.”
The score remained the same until the top of the fifth when Indiana’s Scott Donley and Casey Rodrigue scored to make it a 6-5 game.
UK added its final run in the bottom frame on a RBI-single from Carson to score sophomore JaVon Shelby.
The Hoosiers started their rally in the top of the seventh when Rodrigue singled in Donley to cut the Cats’ lead to one. Rodrigue later scored on a base hit to even the game.
Hartong and Sower’s two-run home runs in the closing innings were too much for the Cats to overcome, despite having 15 hits in the game.
“We got enough hits to win but we didn’t do much of anything else today,” Henderson said. “Fastball command and getting ahead of the count and getting the leadoff hitter out wasn’t there today. I thought the defense let us down a little bit as well.”
UK returns to action on Thursday night when it takes on newly ranked No. 2 Texas A&M at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
