For Kentucky baseball in 2024 the team has had its sights on Omaha and the College World Series from day one, but some recent performances could stop those plans in their tracks.
One of head coach Nick Mingione’s monikers when talking about his team is, “the strength of our team is our team,” and this is true as Kentucky is a very complete baseball team… which is great when everything is going well.
This also means that Kentucky does not have that one high MLB prospect who can put the team on his back like a Paul Skenes or Dylan Crews, both of which headlined last year’s College-World-Series-winning LSU Tigers.
While having an MLB loaded roster is not necessary to win a championship, in the Wildcats’ case, it also relies on everyone to pull their weight and do their part. While the offense has delivered, some of the team’s most prominent arms have not been up to par as of late, which has resulted in the team losing four of its last five conference games.
Dominic Niman and Mason Moore began the year and conference play as practically two aces who were automatic quality starts and gave the Wildcats a great chance to take two out of three games in any series.
As of late, though, the lefty, righty combo has been anything but automatic. Instead, they have both hit rough patches at the worst times.
For Niman, he imploded against Tennessee at home as he did not record an out and surrendered five runs, four of which were earned, on five hits.
His struggles continued in his most recent start on the road against South Carolina as he was able to make it out of the first inning, but not before giving up six hits and six earned runs.
For Moore, his struggles began three starts ago on the road against Auburn when he only lasted 2.1 innings and he gave up six runs, five of which were earned.
Returning home for a series deciding game three against Tennessee, Moore lasted 5.0 innings but surrendered seven runs with five being earned.
In another series deciding start on the road against South Carolina, Moore had his worst start of the year as he gave up nine earned runs on 10 hits in 4.2 innings of work.
Big innings have been the main thing leading to Moore’s struggles as he gave up a four-run inning at Auburn, a five-run inning to Tennessee and a six-run inning to South Carolina.
Another cause for concern for Kentucky is closer Johnny Hummel, who has also gone from automatic to shaky as of late.
After successfully closing out game one against Tennessee, Hummel came on in a critical spot with runners on in game three and gave up a three-run home run to Christian Moore, which was ultimately the difference in the game.
The following Friday, in game one against South Carolina, Hummel was given a three-run lead and a clean bottom of the ninth to try and secure the victory, but he gave up three solo home runs that sent the game into extra innings, which ultimately resulted in the Wildcats losing in walk-off fashion.
While all of this may be alarming, the good news for Kentucky and all three of these arms is that there is still time to get back on track with three SEC weekends to go. This will allow Niman and Moore three more starts and Hummel more appearances in relief to try and turn around their recent fortunes.
All three of these arms have shown they are more than capable and are a huge reason why the Wildcats are where they are to this point, but baseball is a results-based game so it’s critical that the trio turn it around quickly or the Wildcats’ Omaha expectations could go up in smoke.
