After a day full of missed opportunities, UK baseball was defeated by the Louisville Cardinals, with a final score of 5-2. For the second weekend in a row, the Cats will be forced to fight for their lives as they face season-ending elimination on Saturday. 

Left-handed freshman Zach Thompson had a bit of an uncharacteristic start but pitched well after the 1st inning, where he allowed two runs and three hits. 

Freshman right-hander Chris Machamer was utilized for middle relief and had somewhat of a rocky performance, allowing two runs in his .1 innings pitched, in which he threw only 14 pitches. Junior left-hander Zach Logue replaced Machamer and lasted .2 innings. 

The Cats seemed a bit defeated after Drew Ellis hit a 3-run home run to left field, making the score 5-0, where it would remain until the top of the 9th inning. 

Left-handed junior Brad Schaenzer finished the game for the Cats, pitching three innings, while allowing no hits and no runs. All four pitchers struck out a combined eight batters.

A late rally in the 9th inning gave the Cats some hope when Evan White hit a solo home run to right field, just left of the foul pole. Tyler Marshall singled and scored Riley Mahan, bringing the score to 5-2 but still fell short to the Cards. 

The Cats left six on base today, which makes 59 left on in the last five games alone. It is crucial that they capitalize when they have runners on base, especially in moments like the 5th inning when they had two on base with no outs, and did not score. 

“It’s going to be a very very special game with two high quality arms and I think you saw that a little bit today, with these two offenses doing whatever they can to score runs, and tommorow will be no different, with two high quality arms on the mound,” head coach Nick Mingione said about the upcoming game on Saturday. 

The Cats will play game two of the best-of-three series on Saturday at noon against the Cards. They will either face season ending devastation or another day in the postseason to fight for their chance to go to the College World Series for the first time. They will have to win two games in a row to do so. 

Starting pitchers are UK’s ace and SEC Pitcher of the Year Sean Hjelle and Baseball America’s Player of the Year Brendan McKay.