The No. 9 UK baseball team took game one of the annual Battle of the Bluegrass on Tuesday night in front of a record crowd, beating the UofL Cardinals by a final score of 8-5. 

The fans set a new Cliff Hagan regular season single-game attendance record of 4,798. This is the second time fans have broken the attendance record this season. 

“First off, I’m thanking the Big Blue Nation,” head coach Nick Mingione said after the game. “Awesome crowd, awesome environment and just really proud of the Big Blue Nation that showed up today.”

Watch: Nick Mingione talks about the win over Louisville

This is UK’s 20th win of the season, showing some promise after massive struggles in recent weeks.

The story of the game was the bullpen. They did not allow any earned runs and recorded seven strikeouts while allowing only two hits. 

Freshman Daniel Harper took the mound as he usually does in midweek matchups, but did not have his best outing. The Cats were forced to turn to their bullpen early.

The Cats had impressive outings out of the bullpen from Carson Coleman, Jimmy Ramsey and Chris Machamer. 

Coleman recorded his first career win after being redshirted last year. 

“It’s exciting. I mean against Louisville, being a hometown kid, that’s kind of like the perfect first win,” Coleman said.

Riley Thompson got the start for the Cards but UK’s offense chased him quickly in the second inning. UofL was forced to utilize seven pitchers Tuesday as nothing was working the way they wanted. 

The first two innings were back and forth with the Cards and Cats battling to regain the lead. 

Louisville got the lead right off the bat before Harper was able to find his command, but the Cats quickly answered, taking the lead for the final time in the second inning. 

There were a number of walks and HBPs from both teams. Louisville walked eight combined while UK walked six and used three less pitchers than UofL.

The Cats hope this two-game winning streak will set them on the right path as they prepare to host the South Carolina Gamecocks this weekend and look to win their second SEC series at home.