Kentucky baseball (24-9, 6-7 SEC) dropped game one of the weekend series 12-5 to the No. 15 Auburn Tigers (23-10, 7-6 SEC).
Friday night’s pitcher Jaxon Jelkin was rolled out once again to begin the weekend, however, he suffered his worst outing of the year.
He only went two innings, giving up eight runs across the plate on seven hits with an early first inning ambush from the Tigers, surrendering six runs in the first two innings.
Jelkin however received zero help in the field as they committed three errors in the inning, but he did suffer multiple walks, including one walk and a wild pitch that drove in several runs.
Of the eight runs accounted for during Jelkin’s two innings, only three came earned in the scorebook.
He has been the most consistent pitcher the entire season and fell victim to the occasional rough outing, but it’s nothing to truly get BBN all caught up over.
Jelkin has shown perseverance from Tommy John surgery the year prior to getting back on the diamond this year and shutting down opponents.
He’s been lifted by offensive standouts as well like Jayce Tharnish who tallied three hits and an RBI-single in Kentucky’s three-run seventh inning.
Tharnish and the Wildcats ended the game by totaling up 11 hits, but never got an early game surge like Auburn did as the Tigers pitcher, Andreas Alvarez, was lights out.
Alvarez’s 1.24 ERA is fourth in the nation, and he showed no remorse toward Kentucky batters only giving up three hits and two runs to tack onto the stat sheet.
Tharnish successfully went 1-for-3 off Alvarez, accounting for his two other hits later in the game as Kentucky’s attempt toward a comeback after digging into the Tiger bullpen.
During the mid-season struggles, Tharnish has been alongside a couple other players like Carson Hansen and Luke Lawrence, who both had two hits, as some of the most consistent players in the batter’s box.
However, Tharnish —who is riding an 11-game hitting streak— has played a significant role in Kentucky’s continued success.
During his hitting streak, five of those games have been multi-hit games, alongside being a speed menace on the bases.
Although he didn’t tally a stolen base in the series-opener loss, he still remains second in the SEC with 24 so far on the year.
He may have put up some hefty numbers during the season, Tharnish however has done it quietly but efficiently as he also leads the team in batting average at .365.
With crunch time in the SEC and every weekend series plays a crucial role with the SEC and NCAA tournament lurking near with seeding implications.
Tharnish’s leadership ignited by the rest of the Bat Cats still flows heavily through the dugout as they continue their duties at the plate.
Kentucky backs the starting rotation and bullpen with a valuable amount of run support against an incredible Auburn pitching rotation, and look to steal the series after an opening loss.
Jelkin peers his eyes to his next start back home next weekend, he passes the rock to Nate Harris to try and clean up Friday night’s mess.
Both the Wildcats and Tigers will square off once again in the plains of Auburn, Alabama, on Saturday, April 11, with first pitch at 8 p.m. EST.