Trey Pooser and Ryan Waldschmidt shined as No. 2 Kentucky baseball (40-13 23-9 SEC) avoided elimination in the SEC Tournament by defeating No. 5 Arkansas (43-14 20-11 SEC) by a score of 9-6.
After being shut out and mercy-ruled by LSU in the first game, both the starting pitching and offense bounced back in a big way.
“I thought our offense was on full display,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said. “Bunts, bombs, stealing, base running, you name it and when we are at our best, that’s what we are doing.”
Pooser took the hill for his SEC Tournament debut and worked around a single to pitch a scoreless first frame.
After only producing a one-hit effort in their first game, the Bat Cats did not have things any easier as the Razorbacks sent the SEC Pitcher of The Year Hagen Smith to the mound.
Waldschmidt led off against Smith and walked and, thanks to a botched pickoff attempt by Smith, moved to second. Émilien Pitre then tagged Smith for a single that advanced Waldschmidt to third.
Waldschmidt came in to score as Devin Burkes laid down a sacrifice bunt that gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. Pitre moved to second on the bunt and stole third, but the Razorback catcher Hudson White sailed the throw, which allowed him to come home and score another run.
Pooser came to the mound in the second and Ben McLaughlin barreled a ball to center field, but Nolan McCarthy timed his jump perfectly and robbed what would’ve been a home run. Pooser retired the next two batters to complete a three-up, three-down inning.
The righty got two quick outs in the third before surrendering a single and a walk, but he was able to strike out Peyton Stovall to end the frame. Pooser then worked around a single in the fourth to keep the Hogs off the scoreboard.
The Wildcat offense was kept off the board despite Smith only going two innings until the fourth when Ryan Nicholson hit a home run over the right field wall that extended the Cats’ lead to 3-0. Then, in his final inning of work in the fifth, Pooser tossed another three-up, three-down frame.
“Going into next week having a solid outing behind me and having that confidence to pitch the same way or even better,” Pooser said about building on this outing with the NCAA Tournament looming.
After Grant Smith grounded out, Waldschmidt took a ball before sending a low fastball 420 feet away over the left field wall for a home run. The Bat Cats plated two more in the fifth on a Nick Lopez single that extended the lead to 6-0.
The Razorbacks showed some resilience in the sixth as Wehiwa Aloy grounded out to score a run before Peyton Holt hit a three-run home run off of Jackson Nove that shrunk the Cats’ lead to 6-4.
Moving to the bottom half of the seventh, Smith reached on an error to bring Waldschmidt back to the plate and he worked a 1-1 count before taking a hanging breaking ball and sending it 421 feet over the left field wall to extend the lead to 8-4.
“Today I made an effort just to be on time,” Waldschmidt said. “When I got a pitch in the zone, I was on time.”
Later in the seventh, Mitchell Daly brought home the Cats’ final run on a sacrifice fly.
Holt and Jared Sprague-Lott hit solo shots in the eighth and ninth that shrunk the Cats’ lead to 9-6, but that was all as the Wildcats held on to secure the victory.
Waldschmidt finished 2-4 with three RBIs on the day with the two home runs. Pooser earned the win for his five scoreless innings, which moved his record to 5-1.
With the win, the Wildcats will await the loser of a matchup between South Carolina and LSU.
The Wildcats will face the loser of that game in another elimination game on Friday, May 24, with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.
