No. 3 seeded UK baseball faced a devastating loss on Thursday, as they were shutout by No. 2 seeded LSU by a final score of 10-0. 

The game was a highly anticipated battle of the aces, between co-First-Team All-SEC pitchers’ Sean Hjelle and Alex Lange.

Sophomore right-hander Sean Hjelle had his worst outing of the season, allowing 10 runs in his five innings pitched, but still managed to get a career-high 10 strikeouts.

LSU’s Alex Lange had another great outing for the Tigers, allowing only six hits and no runs in seven innings, shutting out the Cats. Lange is now 8-5 on the season with a 2.59 ERA. 

LSU’s offense came alive and took advantage of the defensive errors made by UK and Hjelle’s poor performance, scoring five runs in the 2nd and 5th innings.

Colton Cleary and Alec Maley both made an appearance after Hjelle, but the damage had already been done. 

The Cats will now play the No. 11 seeded South Carolina Gamecocks for the second time in the SEC Tournament on Friday in an elimination game. The game is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET and the winner will play LSU on Saturday.