As Kentucky baseball heads into the NCAA Tournament, one arm that is sure to play a prominent role on the mound is Ben Cleaver.
While his name might not be as familiar as some of his teammates outside the dugout, within the team his ability is no secret and it would’ve been on full display earlier if it had not been for some injuries.
“Coming out of our fall, we did a ton of player evaluations, I had him as our midweek starter,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said. “He was a guy that, in my hopes, would be our midweek starter and then, much like we did with Travis [Smith] a year ago, when we got to the regional, that would be our potential fourth starter.”
Despite injuries limiting his role, Cleaver has used them as an opportunity to learn from those around them instead of letting them get the better of him while he was unable to pitch.
“He has been learning from a lot of us old guys, asking me a lot of questions,” senior reliever Cameron O’Brien said. “It’s awesome to see him out there doing what he is supposed to do.”
Cleaver has seen minimal work due to those injury setbacks and had only pitched two innings before being called upon in a series-deciding game three against Florida with the winning run at the plate and two outs.
On a 2-2 count, the lefty fired a fastball past the bat of Landon Russell to secure the game and series victory for the Bat Cats.
As he got the strikeout, emotion poured out of him as he celebrated with his catcher Devin Burkes and teammates as they were also just as fired up for the freshman.
“The fact that he got that opportunity and took advantage of it, none of us were surprised,” Mingione said.
That outing was the first real introduction for most fans to Cleaver and it was followed up by a home appearance against Vanderbilt.
Cleaver started his inning with a strikeout before giving up a walk and a double, but he bounced back with a strikeout before taking a single off the shin, which scored a run. After being evaluated, he stayed in the game and threw a wild pitch and gave up a double before getting a flyout to end the frame.
Despite the struggles, the lanky lefty bounced back from that shaky performance in his SEC Tournament debut in an elimination game against South Carolina. While his team lost 6-5, he pitched two huge scoreless frames in the seventh and eight innings, which kept the Wildcats in the game.
In this outing, Cleaver showcased an impressive slow looping curveball that was consistently finding the strike zone, which played well off of his fastball which left the Gamecock hitters guessing for his two scoreless innings.
The confidence and flare from the Florida outing was back on display and a big smile flashed across his face for all to see several times after making a hitter swing and miss or freeze at his pitches.
So far in his limited work, Cleaver has shown that no moment or stage is too big and his confidence, along with his fearlessness on the mound, has also instilled faith in the coaching staff.
“In a lot of ways, we feel like we are adding a quality arm to our bullpen and if we gotta start him, I will feel totally comfortable doing that,” Mingione said. “He’s a super talented freshman.”
Whether it’s out of the bullpen or maybe even a starting assignment, Cleaver can serve to be a critical part of Kentucky baseball’s hopes to reach Omaha and the College World Series for the first time in program history.
