Following a sweep at No. 9 North Carolina last weekend, and a loss on Wednesday at Liberty, UK baseball headed into this past weekend’s set of games looking to get coach Nick Mingione his first career win as head coach.

The Cats were able to do just that, and pick up a pair of wins beginning with a 16-9 victory over St. Joseph’s (PA) on Friday and then a 19-2 rout of Old Dominion. Game three of the weekend against Delaware however saw UK take a 3-0 lead into the eighth, but fall 4-3 to finish the week at 2-2.

Despite the big margin of victory in Friday’s game, the game did not begin in the most ideal way as the Hawks jumped out to a 5-0 lead but the Cats responded in a big way including a seven-run fourth inning to put them ahead.

In Friday’s game, six UK players had multiple hits after only five players had managed that feat in the teams’ first four games combined.

The offense continued to rake in game two on Saturday against Old Dominion, exploding for 19 runs on 20 hits, but changed the way it started the game. UK jumped on ODU starter Morgan Maguire for seven runs over two and one-thirds innings, and never looked back. Zach Logue turned in six good innings for his first win of the year, allowing just one run on four hits with four strikeouts.

On Sunday, the Cats were looking to complete the weekend sweep in their game with Delaware and turned to Justin Lewis to finish it out, and Lewis turned in nothing short of a gem.

In seven innings of shutout ball Lewis struck out four and allowed just two hits, but unfortunately, Delaware was able to get to the UK bullpen and mount a comeback taking the finale.

Overall, this past weekend showed that UK despite its struggles, can be a good team.

Along with Logue and Lewis’ solid outings, Zach Pop fired 3.2 scoreless innings in relief on Friday to allow the Cats to come back.

Not only was it pitching, but senior outfielder Marcus Carson continued his torrid start to the season going 10-18 in the teams four games this week to bring his season average to .500.

With all of that however, up until Sunday’s game, the Cats were without All-American first baseman Evan White who was being held out for precaution to heal a sore hip. White went 2-2 in his return to the lineup Sunday with an RBI and will be a big boost to the Cats who have struggled out of the gate.

At 2-5, this upcoming week will see the Cats return home to face a pair of in-state rivals, Eastern and Western Kentucky on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, along with 2016 College World Series participant UC Santa Barbara coming to town on Friday.