Kentucky Baseball (4-0) defeated the Morehead State Eagles (2-2) in comeback fashion by a score of 9-5 in its home opener.
Freshman Drew Lafferty started the game for the Cats and stuck out the first batter he faced.
Neither team was able to score runs in the first two innings, with Hayden Smith being the first pitcher out of the bullpen in the top of the third.
The deadlock was finally broken when Lopez made an errant throw to first, which allowed the MSU baserunner to advance to second before another throwing error allowed the batter to advance to second with a run coming in to score.
A stolen base gave way to a sacrifice fly that scored another Eagle and extended the lead to 2-0, which ended Smith’s outing and put Cameron O’Brien on the mound.
Lopez was eventually substituted after three throwing errors, with Mitchell Daly took over for him at third base as the Cats continued struggling in the batter’s box.
O’Brien returned to the mound for the fifth and ran into trouble, with MSU putting runners at the corners. After a strikeout, catcher Austin Fawley tried to catch a runner stealing, but the ball short hopped Émilien Pitre and popped up into the air, allowing the runner at third to score and give MSU a 3-0 lead.
The Cats’ bats finally got going in the bottom of the fifth with a leadoff single by Nolan McCarthy, which broke a streak of 10-straight Wildcat hitters retired.
McCarthy advanced to second on a fielder’s choice and stole third before Grant Smith hit a single up the middle to shorten the deficit to 3-1.
With Kentucky unable to score further, Zach Hise came on in the sixth inning and hit the only two batters he faced, leading the Cats to insert Evan Byers, who came in and let up a sacrifice bunt that advanced both runners before back-to-back singles grew the Eagles’ lead to 5-1.
James McCoy made a diving play to end the bleeding for Kentucky, with Pitre leading off the bottom of the sixth with a double. Ty Crittenberger drew a walk to bring up Nolan McCarthy and, after Pitre advanced to third, McCarthy laid down a sacrifice bunt to score him and bring the score to 5-2 Eagles.
Jackson Nove relieved Byers in the eighth after a scoreless seventh and worked around a single to keep the score where it stood at 5-2.
“Jackson Nove was phenomenal, he put the energy back in our dugout,” head coach Nick Mingione said.
Pitre and Eli Small then hit singles in the bottom of the eighth before two walks brought in the former to score and get UK back within two.
Patrick Herrera then pinch hit and drew another walk to bring the Wildcats within one with Big Blue Nation continuing to get louder and louder with each passing pitch.
“You can see there was a clear home field advantage and when you’re standing on that bump and all those fans were doing what they were doing, it makes it really difficult,” Mingione said.
A bunt quickly tied the game for Kentucky before Daly hit a single to left field to bring home McCarthy and put the Cats ahead.
With the bases still loaded, Nicholson hit a blistering double into right center field to give Kentucky a 9-5 lead.
“Whatever the game calls for we can do, we’re not really a one dimensional ball club, especially offensively,” Nicholson said.
Johnny Hummel came on in the ninth and closed out the game to secure the victory for the Wildcats.
“I love the fact that we’ve played four games this year, and we’ve had to win three different ways,” Mingione said.
Kentucky will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 23, when it takes on Washington State in Round Rock, Texas, as a part of the weekend-long Karbach Round Rock Classic. First pitch for Friday is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET and will air live on D1Baseball.
