Kentucky Baseball (7-1) pitched its way past the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (6-3) by a score of 5-0 on Tuesday.
Eight Wildcat pitchers combined for a shutout.
Drew Lafferty pitched a quick three-up-three-down first inning before coming back to the mound for the second inning and working around two walks to avoid any damage.
After keeping the Hilltoppers scoreless in the third, a walk to lead off the fourth ended Lafferty’s evening.
Cameron O’Brien was first out of the bullpen and he worked around a wild pitch that sent a Hilltopper to third to get out of the inning.
Those outs would be the only ones O’Brien would be responsible for as Hayden Smith took the mound in the top of the fifth and worked around a single as well as a walk by tossing a double play to avoid any trouble.
Robert Hogan was next on the bump for the sixth inning and he surrendered a leadoff walk, but quickly erased it with a double play. Hogan struck out the next batter for another clean frame for the Cats.
Jake Titus, making his collegiate debut, relieved Hogan and had a successful debut, pitching a three-up-three-down seventh inning.
Titus returned to the mound for the eighth and got one out before being replaced by Evan Hart, who came on and struck out a batter before hitting a batter and giving up a single.
With a 2-0 count on the next batter, head coach Nick Mingione decided to go to outfielder/pitcher James McCoy, who battled back and struck out the only batter he faced in the game.
Johnny Hummel came on and worked around a triple as well as a walk to close out to the game and secure the victory.
On the other side of the ball, the offense was quiet until the third inning when Grant Smith walked, Ryan Waldschmidt singled and Émilien Pitre walked to load the bases.
Patrick Herrera was hit by a pitch to bring in the first run of the contest.
Nick Lopez hit into a double play, but brought home Waldschmidt and Lukas Schramm capped off the inning with a single to bring home Pitre and give the Cats a 3-0 lead after three.
The Wildcats returned to the scoreboard one inning later in the fourth when Waldschmidt was able to score on a wild pitch, bringing the score to 4-0 Wildcats.
The final run of the night came by way of an Austin Fawley solo home run that he crushed over the left field wall for the 5-0 final.
Kentucky returns to action on Friday, Mar. 1, when it will take on Lipscomb in game one of a weekend series from Kentucky Proud Park with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.
