Kentucky baseball (21-4 5-1 SEC) came back to defeat Miami (OH) (9-14) in unique fashion by a score of 9-5.
Few exemplified the uniqueness better than Patrick Herrera, who manned the leadoff spot in the Cats’ batting order and reached base all six times at the plate, despite not having an official at-bat in the game.
“I’m just trying to set the table and get on base any way I can, and luckily I was able to do that tonight,” Herrera said.
Herrera was hit by a pitch to leadoff the game before coming around to score on a bases-loaded walk by Mitchell Daly that gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, Herrera was walked, but left stranded.
The RedHawks took a 3-1 lead in the top of the third and the Wildcats responded with an Austin Fawley single that scored Ryan Nicholson to cut the deficit to 3-2 before Herrera stepped back up to the plate in the bottom of the fourth and drew another walk.
The Wildcats made their comeback more difficult by surrendering two runs in the top of fifth, but in the bottom of the sixth, Herrera got his next at-bat and drew his third consecutive walk.
Entering the bottom of the seventh, the Wildcats were not only down on the scoreboard, but the offense had left 10 men on base and were batting 1-12 with runners in scoring position.
“I think it would have been really easy to just go man, it’s not our night, but we don’t do that,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said.
With Kentucky beginning to rally, scoring one run after a hit-by-pitch, Herrera stepped back up to the plate and walked for the fourth time, this time scoring Devin Burkes.
Another hit-by-pitch and a walk gave the Cats the lead before the “Bat Cats” finally lived up to their name and got a hit to extend the lead to 8-5.
“We’re not a typical SEC team that relies on extra base hits or home runs,” Herrera said. “Being able to get on base and keep pushing is really special for our team.”
Ty Crittenberger added an insurance run himself in the bottom of the eighth by crushing a home run over the left field wall to give the Cats a 9-5 advantage before Herrera had his sixth at-bat of the night and, stunningly, he was hit by another pitch.
“That was one of the weirdest games I’ve ever been a part of,” Herrera said.
Kentucky returns to action on Friday, March 29, when it travels to Oxford, Mississippi, for the first of a three game series against the Ole Miss Rebels with first pitch of game one scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
