Kentucky baseball (21-15, 7-10 SEC) bested No. 4 Tennessee (33-6, 12-5 SEC) 4-1 on the heels of a fantastic outing by Nic McCay.
The Bat Cats earned their fourth win of the season over a top 10 opponent and third over a top three opponent.
The right-hander came into to Knoxville, Tennessee looking to build off an outing against Texas where he allowed three runs over 5 1/3 innings of work.
In his first inning, McCay surrendered a single and walk, but got a flyout along with a strikeout to end the inning.
The righty added two more strikeouts and a groundout to complete a three-up, three-down second inning of work.
Tyler Bell got the third started with a double to right-center. A throwing error by the shortstop allowed Hudson Brown to reach first and Bell to score, which gave Kentucky a 1-0 lead.
Kentucky put pressure on the Vols’ defense as they stole 10 bases in the game.
One of those came in the second when Brown stole third, but the third baseman could not handle the throw, so Brown scored to extend the lead to 2-0.
Now pitching with a lead, McCay gave up a one-out single and walk. However, he struck out the next two batters to keep Tennessee off the board.
McCay struck out two more batters to kick off the third before giving up a walk that turned out to be a moot point as a groundout ended the inning.
The Vols had no answer for McCay as he went six-up, six-down over the next two innings.
Before McCay took the mound in the sixth, he got additional runs for support as Brown and Kyuss Gargett brought home two more on a groundout and sacrifice fly.
The right-hander came back out for the seventh and got two quick outs before freezing Jay Abernathy and letting out a ton of emotion coming off the mound.
McCay’s electric performance continued by striking out the first two batters of the inning and strutting around the mound. It looked like McCay was going to cruise through the eighth, but Cole Hage dropped a flyball in right that resulted in a runner on second for the Vols.
Kentucky Head Coach Nick Mingione came out of the Kentucky dugout to pull McCay for Jackson Nove. The lefty came on and walked the first batter he faced.
Nove then allowed a single that put the Vols on the board, but still down 4-1. A groundout ended the inning with the lead remaining intact.
The eighth also closed the book on McCay as he finished with 7 2/3 innings of work in which he gave up one unearned run and set a season-high in strikeouts with 12.
With the win, McCay improved to 4-0 on the season.
Nove stay on in the ninth and struck out the side to end the ballgame.
Kentucky pitching held Tennessee to its lowest run total in the 2025 season at just one run.
Along with the lone run, the pitching staff did not allow a leadoff batter to reach in the entire game.
The Wildcats and Volunteers will play a series-deciding game three on Sunday, April 20, with first pitch set for 1 p.m. ET.
