No. 3 Kentucky baseball (32-7 15-3 SEC) came up short in a decisive game three against No. 4 Tennessee (33-7 12-6 SEC) by a score of 13-11.
The loss marked the first SEC series loss for the Bat Cats.
“This was an example of us not executing at a high level on a pitching and defensive side,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said.
Both offenses were held scoreless until the top of the third when Mason Moore walked Cal Stark to bring up Christian Moore, who hit a two-run home run.
Devin Burkes got the Wildcats on the board in the bottom of the third with a home run over the left field wall to cut the deficit to one before Mitchell Daly tied it in the bottom of the fourth with a home run over the right field wall.
Also in the fourth, the Wildcats took the lead on a double by Ryan Waldschmidt that scored James McCoy and Nolan McCarthy. Émilien Pitre added another run on a sacrifice fly that gave the Bat Cats a 5-2 lead after four innings.
In the bottom of the fifth, McCarthy singled up the middle to bring home Nick Lopez, which extended the lead to 6-2.
Moore returned to the mound for the top of the sixth and ran into immediate trouble when he hit Stark and Moore doubled with no outs. Blake Burke then singled to bring home Stark. Billy Amick then brought home Moore on an infield single, but a fielding error by Ryan Nicholson also allowed Burke to score.
Things got away from Moore after this as he walked Kavares Tears and Dylan Dreiling singled to bring home Amick and tie the game.
That single ended Moore’s afternoon and he was relieved by Cameron O’Brien, who walked Dean Curley to load the bases before he was also removed from the game for Jackson Nove.
“This was a good example of just lack of execution,” Mingione said. “When you have two good teams, both offenses made each other pay every time we didn’t execute.”
Cannon Peebles came off the bench for the Vols and hit a sacrifice fly, which gave them a 7-6 lead.
The Wildcats responded in the bottom of the sixth when Grant Smith hit a two-run home run, which swung the score back in the Cats’ favor at 8-7 but the lead only lasted one out into the seventh as Moore hit his second home run of the game to tie the game.
The damage was not done for Vols in the inning as, with two outs, Tears hit a two-run home run which gave the Vols a 10-8 lead.
The Wildcats did go away quietly as, in the bottom of the seventh, McCarthy hit a home run to get back the Cats within one run with the score at 10-9.
Travis Smith was in his second inning of work in the eighth when he gave up a single to Curley and walked Peebles before being removed for Johnny Hummel.
Hummel was able to get one out before Moore hit his third home run of the game, this time a three-run shot that made the score 13-9.
The Bat Cats began the bottom of the ninth with an out before Daly and Nicholson hit back-to-back home runs to cut the deficit to 13-11 and after another out Patrick Herrera singled to bring Burkes to plate as the potential tying run, but he flew out to end the game.
“They’re always fighting. And that’s why when they compete that hard, it’s really hard to get upset with them because they definitely emptied the tank and gave us everything they had,” Mingione said.
The Wildcat pitching staff had no answers for Moore, who went 4-5 with three home runs, a double and a team-leading six RBIs.
Kentucky will have a bit of a break before returning to action on Friday, April 26, when it begins a three-game road series against South Carolina with first pitch of game one scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.
