The Wildcats took the field for the first time in nearly four months to take on the Dayton Flyers to open their fall season. The ‘Cats won decisively having four innings for three plus runs.

Kentucky gave the start to junior right handed pitcher Cole Stupp, who gave up a double to Dayton’s first batter Jose Martinez, but found his groove after. He struck out two of the next three batters, but Martinez scored on a fielding error.

Stupp pitched through the second inning, recording another strikeout, one walk, and left having after throwing 34 pitches.

Dayton gave their start to grad student Kenny Serwa, a UCF transfer, who only pitched one inning. In his one inning he allowed three runs to score and recorded no strikeouts. Kentucky’s Oraj Anu had an RBI single and Kirk Liebert recorded a two RBI triple.

The Flyers tried their luck in the second inning with sophomore Parker Bard on the mound, but like Serwa before him, he also gave up three runs. Fifth year Hunter Jump hit a two run home run to right field — following the two run shot, Bard also allowed Estep to hit a solo homer. The inning would be his only on the night.

The ‘Cats brought sophomore transfer Magdiel Cotto in for he third inning to pitch. Cotto pitched for two innings and recorded two strikeouts and allowed no runs. 

Cotto was pulled before the 5th inning in favor of fellow sophomore Wyatt Hudepohl. Hudepohl pitched only the fifth inning and allowed no hits and had a strikeout in the process.

Ready for their fifth pitcher in five innings, Dayton brought out sophomore pitcher Eli Majick. On his first throw, Plastiak recorded a solo homer to left field to score the Wildcats’ first run of the inning. He walked the next two batters and with John Thrasher recording a single, the bases were quickly loaded. Though Majick was able to strikeout Emilien Pitre, he was pulled from the game in favor of Nick Maue. Maue would go on to finish the inning — but not before allowing two more Wildcat runs to score. 

While Kentucky continued their scoring trend in the seventh with Tyler Bosma — Dayton could not do the same with Nick Meyer. A fielding error allowed another run for the ‘Cats and seeing Meyer struggling, Dayton opted to substitute the pitcher for senior Bryce Hellgeth.

After loading the bases with a single allowed, Hellgeth threw two wild pitches in a row, which advanced all runners and brought more Wildcats home. Plastiak hit a RBI sac-fly allowed a fifth and final Kentucky run to score.

Dayton would score two more runs in the ninth with Alex Neff hitting a two run homer off of Tyler Guilfoil. Neither team scored in the 10th inning, officially ending the game.

The ‘Cats finished the game with 14 runs off 17 hits with only one error in the first inning. Kentucky left 10 runners stranded on base and Dayton finished with three runs on four hits and one error, only leaving three runners stranded on base.