Kentucky Baseball (10-1) defeated the Lipscomb Bison (3-8) by a score of 9-1 on Sunday to complete the series sweep.
Kentucky’s bats were hot throughout the game, recording a whopping 16 hits, including a two-run homer from Ryan Waldschmidt in the seventh inning.
The Cats’ big run started in the second inning, with an RBI single from Grant Smith being followed by another RBI single from Waldschmidt.
In the top of the third inning, Smith was removed from the game after showing some discomfort in his hamstring.
“We’ll reevaluate it. We’ll see where he’s at,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said. “But he was in a good bit of pain and we were not going to risk anything.”
In the bottom of the third, Ethan Hindle grounded into a double play, but Patrick Herrera was still able to score from third.
In the fourth inning, Émilien Pitre got an RBI single, making the score 4-0.
On top of the hot start for Kentucky’s offense, Mason Moore had a solid outing as well, giving up just three hits and one run in five innings of work on top of seven strikeouts.
In the top of the fifth inning, Moore gave up his one and only run on a solo-home run by Will Lee.
After a scoreless fifth inning in which Lipscomb was able to shrink the lead down to three runs, the Cats came back with a run of their own as Pitre got yet another RBI single.
As they went into the bottom of the seventh inning, the Cats really started to catch fire.
It all started with a failed pickoff attempt by Lipscomb pitcher Evan Harmon, which led to a score by Hindle. This was followed by Waldschmidt’s two-run homer to left field and, finally, Herrera’s RBI single to make the score 9-1.
“I think we did a really good job this week of just learning to just back up the ball again and just see it deep,” Waldschmidt said. “I think the results showed, I think we ended up hitting the ball even harder and we had more home runs, more extra base hits.”
The bullpen closed out the last four innings of the game, giving up no runs in the process, extending its shutout streak to 18-straight innings.
“I loved our bullpen,” Mingione said. “10 shutout innings on the weekend, they threw the ball exceptionally well.”
The Cats return to action with their next game being at home against Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday at Kentucky Proud Park at 4 p.m. ET.
