No. 18 Kentucky baseball (5-2) had a dominant performance on the mound, guiding the Cats to victory in their weekend series 2-1 over the Evansville Aces (1-5).

Evansville came into the weekend without winning a game yet.

However, they would steal the third game of the series 1-0, giving Kentucky its second upset loss of the week.

After falling to Morehead State earlier in the week, it was the same story for the Wildcats the entire weekend of not getting runners scoring from second and third base.

New faces on the mound, freshman Will Coleman and Jack Sams, both made their collegiate debut over the weekend, and Owen Jenkins continued to prove why head coach Nick Mingione views him as a veteran.

Hudson Brown and Jayce Tharnish both played a big role during the weekend as they tallied two multi-hit games on the weekend.

However, Friday night’s game went in favor of Kentucky as Jaxon Jelkin got his second win of the season in as many starts as the Wildcats won 9-2.

He went five innings, giving up one earned run on three hits with seven strikeouts.

Tharnish and Ryan Schwartz helped out Jelkin with some run support early as they both played a part in delivering the long ball.

Tharnish launched a first-pitch solo shot in the first inning to get the party started, and Schwartz delivered a three-run home run in the third inning.

On top of Tharnish’s two-hit game and coming around to score three times, Brown had a career high at the plate with three hits.

Everyone played a special role for Kentucky baseball in the series opener, but it was the freshman who caught the eye.

Jenkins did his usual at the plate, but Coleman put up an impressive stat line in his debut as he pitched three innings in relief, giving up no hits and striking out four Evansville batters.

Sams came in to retire the final batter in the ninth inning, where he also recorded his first strikeout at the college level.

The heavy freshman presence in this Kentucky baseball program shows the true depth of this program as they continue to settle into the new season and find a groove.

Saturday left Kentucky fans with mixed feelings, as they split the doubleheader and brought an exciting late-game comeback in the first game to secure the series.

Ben Cleaver and relief pitching did all they could to keep Kentucky in the game; only two earned runs throughout the entire game, and an error in the first inning had the Aces up early.

Evansville controlled the game all the way to the seventh inning, where Kentucky finally brought out some of the bats.

Tharnish and Brown both tallied three hits in this game, but wouldn’t be the heroes.

Ethan Hindle got the Wildcats their first lead of the game in the eighth inning after a two-run RBI double flipped the script and made it 4-3.

An insurance run in the ninth made it 5-3, and that was how the game would end, securing the series victory.

The second of the doubleheader brought some frustration for the team, as after heroics to sneak away from the upset earlier in the day, they were stuffed in a rubber match.

Evansville marked their first win of the season after shutting down the bats and only allowing four hits, but the defense did all the work with the help of the Aces pitching from Kevin Reed and Tanner Graham.

Jenkins again was one of the four hits for the Wildcats; however, on the bright side, the arms looked strong yet again.

Nate Harris, the last leg of the weekend crew, got on the bump again for his second Saturday doubleheader in a row and did all he could to keep Kentucky in this game.

He went five innings, allowing one run on just one hit, but suffered from a bloop single scoring one of the back-to-back walks Harris gave up.

The lone run of the game would give Harris the loss inevitably after Kentucky couldn’t get a rally going and left two runners in the ninth inning to end the game, and left a total of ten runners left on the base paths.

Although Kentucky may have won the series, the little things continue to be pointed out as they left 30 runners on base during the three-game stretch.

With a stretch of games against teams with losing records, it gives the Wildcats an edge on fixing the little mistakes as SEC play looms near in mid-March.

They look to the next game with Mingione now two wins away from his historic 300th career victory.

He looks to get one more win closer as they begin their first homestand of the season in a couple of days.

No. 18 Kentucky will face a very solid Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (5-3) on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 3 p.m., to inch back into the win column.