No. 2 Kentucky baseball (38-11 21-7 SEC) showcased its offensive versatility in a 10-5 game one defeat over Vanderbilt (34-19 12-16 SEC).
The win marked the Bat Cats’ 21st conference win, which is a program record.
“I’m happy for em’ because they’ve obviously done something that’s never been done before,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said. “They’ll have that for the rest of their life, and they should be proud of it.”
The Wildcats found themselves down 1-0 after Jonathan Vastine took the first pitch from Trey Pooser and hit it off the batter’s eye for a home run.
Pooser settled in and retired the side, allowing his offense a chance to respond.
The Cats’ leadoff hitter Ryan Waldschmidt stepped up and hit a double. Émilen Pitre then drew a walk and Devin Burkes laid down a bunt for a hit to load the bases.
“I think that’s a big thing for us is just having trust in the coaching staff and ourselves to just execute when the play gets called,” Waldschmidt said.
Nick Lopez showed off one way the Cats can score by hitting a sacrifice fly to bring home Waldschmidt and tie the game at 1-1.
One batter later, Mitchell Daly showed another element of the offense as he laid down a bunt and beat out the throw to first for a single, allowing Pitre to score and give the Cats a 2-1 lead.
Nolan McCarthy drew a walk to reload the bases and James McCoy showed how plate discipline can also bring in a run as he walked to score Burkes, which extended the lead to 3-1 after one.
“That’s one thing we pride ourselves on, just whenever we get punched, punch back,” Burkes said.
After going scoreless in the second, Grant Smith brought home Daly on a sacrifice fly, but this was not all the scoring as Waldschmidt showed another element to the offense by crushing a three-run home run over the left field wall, which extended the Cats’ lead to 7-1 after three.
The Bat Cats continued to click offensively in the fourth when Lopez led off with a double and Daly advanced him to second on a bunt. McCarthy hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Lopez, which extended the lead to 8-1.
The Commodores slimmed the Bat Cats’ lead by putting up three in the top of the fifth, but the Wildcats showcased another way to score in the bottom half, this time by a Burkes double, which plated Waldschmidt and made the score 9-4 after five.
After both offenses were held scoreless in the sixth, Vanderbilt plated a run in the seventh.
The Wildcats got this run back in the eighth after Lopez crushed a ball deep over the right field wall for a home run, which made the score 10-5.
Overall the Bat Cats showed their versatility by using sacrifice flies, bunts, singles, doubles, walks and home runs to plate their runs.
“The players just executed at a very high level, there’s six components to offense and you saw them all,” Mingione said.
With the win, Kentucky can clinch a share of the regular season SEC Championship with a win in game two and can win the championship outright with a sweep.
Game two between the Wildcats and the Commodores will take place on Friday, May 17, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET.
