After a slow start, Kentucky baseball’s offense broke through in its 12-0 bludgeoning of Belmont.
In their historic 2024 season, the Bat Cats were a fully loaded offense and showed the ability to put up runs in a multitude of ways.
With such heavy roster turnover coming into the 2025 season, it was up for debate whether or not Kentucky could replicate the offensive production.
In its 2025 debut, Kentucky’s offense dominated by putting up 11 runs in a 11-0 win at Lipscomb.
The offense finished with a team batting average of .394 as they went 13-33 at the plate.
The Wildcats also excelled with runners in scoring position as they finished 6-17 for a .353 average.
This was the first of two games on opening day due to some scheduling changes. However, the second game was a completely different story at the plate.
Head Coach Nick Mingione only made three changes in the lineup, but it made all the difference as the Bat Cats team average went from .394 in game one to just .103 in game two.
Kentucky finished 3-29 as a team and the numbers with runners in scoring position fell off even more as the Cats went 1-6, which equates to a .0167 average.
After weather spoiled the series finale with the Bison and Kentucky’s midweek matchup with Moorhead State, it returned to action for a weekend series with Belmont.
Luckily, Nic McCay and the bullpen delivered dazzling performances because the bats were still just as cold as the Nashville weather they were playing in.
Unlike the Lipscomb loss, Kentucky did get that clutch hit to fall and won the game 2-1, but the numbers were still not pretty.
The Wildcats finished 3-27 as a team, which is .111 batting average. The numbers were still not good with runners in scoring position as the offense finished 1-7.
Despite the win, through three games the Bat Cats were 19-89 as a team which equates to an average of .213.
The numbers didn’t get prettier with runners in scoring position as Kentucky was 8-30 with a .266 average,
This brought the Bat Cats to game two versus Belmont and Mingione’s lineup featured a combined 0-19 from its last three hitters.
After not scoring in the first inning, Dylan Koontz brought home Tyler Bell to give the Cats a 1-0.
This turned out to be a sign of things to come as the very next inning resulted in three more runs via a Luke Lawrence sacrifice fly, a Patrick Herrera single and a bell single.
Devin Burkes added on to the lead in the fourth with an opposite field homer that extended the lead to 5-0.
Déjà vu struck because after another inning with one run, the Bat Cats brought home three more runs in the fifth. All three runs came on one swing as Bell launched his first career home run to right center.
After taking a break from scoring in the sixth, Milwaukee transfer Carson Hansen got his first opportunity at the plate for Kentucky in a pinch-hitting appearance.
Hansen took full advantage as he launched a grand slam over the right center field wall that extended the lead to the decisive 12-0 score.
The Wildcats offense looked like its old self in the game two win by scoring in four different ways including groundouts, sacrifice flies, singles and Big Blue Bombs.
Kentucky will look to keep the offense clicking as it goes for the sweep over Belmont on Sunday, Feb. 23, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.
