Kentucky baseball (19-4 4-1 SEC) fell to the Missouri Tigers (10-13 1-4 SEC) in a 2-1 pitcher’s duel, marking the team’s first loss in conference play of the season.

Dominic Niman got the ball for the Wildcats and gave up singles in both the first and second innings, but worked around them to keep the Tigers off the scoreboard.

The Wildcats’ lone run came in the third inning as Nolan McCarthy led off with a double, Ty Crittenberger laid down a sacrifice hit that advanced McCarthy to third and Grant Smith put down another sacrifice bunt, which scored the hitter. 

After Niman struck out the first batter of the third, a ball fell in between a host of Wildcat defenders, allowing Jackson Lovich to advance all the way to third for the triple. Trevor Austin then laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring home Austin and tie the game at 1-1.

After a fly out, Jedier Hernandez tagged Niman for a double down the left field line to score Austin and give the Tigers the ultimate 2-1 advantage.

Niman settled into the game by tossing three consecutive three-up, three-down innings but, after two outs in the seventh, Jackson Beaman broke his streak with a single to left field. Regardless, Niman struck out Drew Culbertson for his final out of the game.

Niman finished the game with a season-high nine strikeouts, but due to the Cats’ lack of offense, the two earned runs he surrendered gave him the loss, moving his record to 4-2 on the season.

Robert Hogan came on in relief in the eighth and worked around a walk to pitch a scoreless frame while the Wildcat offense had very little traffic on the bases outside of the lone run in the third. The Cats had an opportunity in the fourth to tie or take the lead, but they left the bases loaded.

The Wildcat offense only produced five hits while leaving seven men on base and striking out nine times.

With the series tied, Kentucky will look to take game three on Sunday, March 24, with first pitch scheduled for noon ET.