No. 17 Kentucky baseball (25-4 9-1 SEC) used timely hitting and stellar pitching performances to defeat No. 13 Alabama (22-8 4-6 SEC) by a score of 6-2 on Friday.
Trey Pooser took the ball for his third straight SEC start and kept a very potent Crimson Tide offense at bay across seven strong innings.
“Being able to locate, fill up the zone, work fast and throw strikes,” Pooser said about the key to his early success as a starter.
Pooser hit Gage Miller with the first pitch of the game, but immediately retired the next three hitters to strand the lone baserunner.
The second was a breeze for Pooser as he tossed a three-up, three-down inning.
Nick Lopez got Pooser a lead after he singled to bring home Mitchell Daly, which gave the Cats a 1-0 advantage and the pitcher picked up where he left off by tossing another three-up, three-down inning in the third.
After getting one out in the fourth, Pooser walked Ian Petrutz, which ended his streak of 10 straight batters retired and the righty found himself in the first trouble of his outing as he surrendered a single to Justin Lebron that put runners on the corner with two outs.
He was able to keep his nerve and a fly out ended the frame and kept Pooser’s line scoreless.
Will Hodo tagged Pooser for a leadoff double in the fifth before two consecutive sacrifice bunts by Mac Guscette and Max Grant scored the runner and evened the score at 1-1, but the Bat Cats quickly picked up their pitcher in the bottom half of the fifth as Grant Smith doubled down the right field line to score Ryan Nicholson.
After Émilien Pitre walked to load the bases, Devin Burkes singled to bring home Smith and James McCoy, which gave the Cats a 4-1 lead after five innings and provided a cushion for Pooser.
Pooser would find himself in trouble again in the sixth after he surrendered back-to-back singles to TJ McCants and Petrutz to start the inning, but he retired the next three batters in order to avoid further damage.
Nolan McCarthy gave Pooser more room to work with by crushing a two-run home run over the left field wall that extended the Cats lead to 6-1.
Hodo singled off Pooser to leadoff the seventh and quickly scored as Guscette doubled to bring him home, which brought the score to 6-2, but Kentucky’s man on the mound kept the score right where it stood by retiring the next three batters in order in what were his final pitches of the night.
“He’s done an amazing job,” McCarthy said about his pitcher. “He has four pitches and he competes with all of them, so it’s awesome.”
To begin the eighth, Pooser departed for Travis Smith who was welcomed into the game with a leadoff double, but he remained unphased by the hit as he retired the next three batters in order to end the frame before securing the win in the ninth inning.
“Those two guys compliment each other really well,” Mingione said.
With the win, Kentucky will look to win the series in game two of the three-game set against Alabama on Saturday April 6, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.
