Kentucky baseball claims victory in home opener against Evansville 6-3
Kentucky Wildcats pitcher Mason Moore (20) pitches the ball during the Kentucky vs. Evansville home opener baseball game on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky won 6-3. Photo by Jack Weaver | Staff
February 22, 2023
Kentucky baseball (3-1) broke in Kentucky Proud Park on Tuesday, winning its home opener 6-3 over the Evansville Purple Aces.
Kentucky collected 13 hits as a team with all but two players finishing the day with a hit. Additionally, the Wildcats fielded well, not giving up any errors, something Evansville couldn’t say for itself.
“(After the Elon series we said) we’ve got to pitch better, we’ve got to defend better and that’s what our team has done,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said.
Redshirt freshman Travis Smith made his starting debut for Kentucky on the mound to begin the matchup while Evansville elected to start Shane Harris, who made his second appearance of the season.
After hitting the first batter, Smith walked the second batter before recording a strikeout in the top of the first.
Center fielder Jackson Gray batted Kentucky’s first hit of the night with a single before stealing second and even eventually reaching third base from an error by Evansville, though he would be left stranded to wrap up the scoreless first inning.
Evansville’s catcher, Brendan Hord, would bat in the first run of the game with a double hit to deep left field after Smith allowed a single to the previous batter.
Kentucky responded with a double by first baseman Hunter Gilliam, who capitalized off an error in center field by Evansville.
Wasting no time, right fielder James McCoy belted a triple to the left field wall, allowing Gilliam to score Kentucky’s first run.
McCoy ran in another run after Evansville’s attempt to throw to third resulted in an error, seeing Kentucky take a 2-1 lead to complete the second inning.
Infielder Ryan Waldschmidt would then reach second base in the next inning with a hit to center field, with the transfer going on to score Kentucky’s third run.
After three innings on the mound, Kentucky replaced Smith with Ryder Giles to begin the third, with Giles giving up a double and a single against Evansville’s first two batters to allow a run to score.
Following Evansville’s run scoring, McCoy kicked off the bottom of the fourth with a double before finding his way home after a double by catcher Chase Stanke, which marked the latter’s first hit of the season.
Evansville opted to replace Harris mid-inning after Kentucky extended its lead to 4-2, with John MacCauley taking the helm at the mound with a runner on first and third with zero outs.
Despite the pitching change, the Wildcats would ultimately score three times after the errors from Evansville continued.
The Purple Aces were eventually able to stop the bleeding though, escaping the side with just the three runs allowed.
Kentucky entered the fifth inning with a 6-2 lead, relieving Giles in favor of Zach Hise on the mound.
Despite an early triple, Hise only allowed one run in the sixth inning while Evansville’s Michael Parks closed out the inning without anyWildcat runs, bringing the game to 6-3 in favor of Kentucky.
To begin the seventh inning, Kentucky replaced Hise with Mason Moore on the mound, with the latter promptly retiring all three Evansville batters with a pair of punchouts in the process.
Stanke began the bottom of the seventh for Kentucky with a hit to center field that resulted in a double, but unfortunately for the Cats, Parks bounced back by striking out two batters, leaving him stranded at second.
Similar to Kentucky, Evansville got a man on base early but with a fly out, strike out and throw out the Cats were able to get out of the top of the eighth inning without a run allowed.
Evansville relieved Parks with Nate Hardman in the bottom of the eighth inning with two runners on base and zero outs before another error from the Purple Aces loaded the bases for Kentucky.
Hardman responded by striking out Kentucky’s next three batters, leaving all three basemen stranded to close the eighth inning with the Wildcats’ lead standing firm at 6-3.
The Wildcats opted to keep Moore in for his third consecutive inning to close the game, with the sophomore proceeding to retire the next three batters to secure the win for Kentucky.
While the Cats did enough to earn the win, they had two separate occasions in which they loaded the bases but failed to score from it. Luckily, Mingione didn’t seem too concerned.
“I’ve been a part of teams where it’s been a challenge to even get bases loaded,” Mingione said. “I was thankful we even had guys in that position.”
Kentucky baseball will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 24, at Kentucky Proud Park where it will kick off its first home series against Wright State at 4 p.m. EST. The game will be aired live on the SEC Network+.
