West Virginia (35-14) scores six runs in the eighth to stun Kentucky baseball (31-26) 13-12 to win the Clemson Regional and end Kentucky’s season.
West Virginia had the advantage in the matchup as they were 2-0 in the regional and did not play a game on Sunday like the Bat Cats.
Since all the members of the weekend rotation for Kentucky have thrown the three games thus far in the regional, the Wildcats turned to Scott Rouse.
After getting a quick first out, Logan Sauve tagged the righty for a home run to open the scoring.
The deficit was short-lived as the Bat Cats loaded the bases with one out thanks to three walks.
Devin Burkes came through with a single that brought home two runs and flipped the scales as the scoreboard now read 2-1 Kentucky.
Luke Lawrence reached on an infield single to reload the bases and Cole Hage matched Burkes’ two-run single with one of his own to extend the Kentucky lead to 4-1.
Rouse responded on the mound with another three-up, three-down inning.
The Bat Cats manufactured another run in the third as Carson Hansen led off with a single and scored on the next batter after Patrick Herrera roped a double down the left-field line.
Rouse responded with another three-up, three-down.
The Wildcats plate another run in the third on a James McCoy sacrifice fly that gave Kentucky a 6-1 lead.
Rouse extended his consecutive batters retired streak to nine before things got away from him quickly. Back-to-back singles and hit-by-pitch loaded the bases with one out.
A groundball to Tyler Bell looked like an easy double play, but it was mishandled by the freshman as a run scored, and the bases remained loaded.
Ben Lumsden singled to bring home two runs, which ended Rouse’s outing. Jackson Nove was called upon to work out of the jam and he hit the first batter he faced before giving up a single that scored two more runs and tied the game.
The lefty walked Kyle West to reload the bases, which ended Nove’s outing as Simon Gregersen was next out of the bullpen.
Sauve hit a slow grounder back to Gregersen and he chose to take the out at first instead of home, which allowed the go-ahead run to score for the Mountaineers.
Kentucky answered right back in the fifth as Herrera and Ryan Schwartz singled to allow Hudson Brown to tie the game 7-7 on a single of his own.
Burkes and Lawrence were both hit-by-pitches to reload the bases and Hage drew a walk that gave the Wildcats an 8-7 lead.
The Wildcats got right back on the board in the sixth as Brown launched a two-run home run that boosted the lead to 10-7.
Following the homer, Burkes walked and stole second before scoring on a groundball off the bat of Lawrence that got past the infield that extended the Cats lead to 11-7.
Burkes added a huge insurance run with a home run in the eighth that extended the Wildcats lead to 12-7.
West Virginia came alive in the eighth as two singles and walk off of Tommy Skelding loaded the bases.
Skelding gave up a bases-loaded walk that shrunk the lead to 12-8.
Nick Mingione popped out of the Kentucky dugout to get the right-hander and replace him with Nile Adcock.
Adcock gave up a two-run single that slimmed the Kentucky lead to 12-10. The right-hander threw two straight balls before Mingione came back out of the dugout, but this time with a glove as McCoy was moving from first to the mound.
He spiked a pitch to move both runners into scoring position before a single tied the ballgame 12-12.
McCoy gave up another single, which ended his outing as Hayden Smith was called upon. Armani Guzman singled right to bring home another run that gave the Mountaineers a 13-12 lead and ultimately ended Kentucky’s season.
Kentucky finishes 2025 with a 31-26 record as a season that was full of heartbreaks for the Bat Cats ends with the biggest one of them all.
