Kentucky baseball dominates undefeated Morehead State 15-1
Kentucky Wildcats pitcher Travis Smith (33) pitches the ball during the Kentucky vs. Morehead State baseball game on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky won 15-1. Photo by Jack Weaver | Staff
March 1, 2023
Kentucky baseball (6-2) powered past Morehead State (8-1) 15-1 at Kentucky Proud Park on Tuesday, tallying 16 hits in the process.
The performance of junior Reuben Church was the highlight of the game for the Cats as he tallied four hits and reached base six times over the course of the night.
“Our coaches instilled a game plan with us. We work on it every day. So a runner’s in scoring position, I’m just trying to put the ball in play, and luckily some of them fell and it turned out pretty successful,” Church said following the game.
Although Morehead State came out of the gate with two walks, redshirt freshman Travis Smith, Kentucky’s starting pitcher for the day, struck out two before sophomore Nolan McCarthy made a sliding catch to finish the inning with two runners left stranded.
Senior Jackson Gray was hit by the first pitch thrown to the Wildcats but after two quick outs he was caught stealing second, putting a quick end to the first inning.
The top of the second also ended quickly after Morehead State grounded out to first, singled and grounded into a double play.
Sophomore Emilien Pitre singled to start the bottom of the second before an error from the Eagles allowed redshirt senior Hunter Gilliam to reach second and Pitre to advance to third.
Pitre attempted to reach home following a flyout but was not successful and was injured in the process, causing him to leave the game.
After Smith struck out two more in the top of the third, the bottom half saw a sacrifice fly by redshirt sophomore Devin Burkes bring in Church for the first run of the game.
Morehead State would then tie the game in the fourth with a sacrifice fly of its own.
The bottom of the fourth was a big inning for Kentucky with eight total runs scored.
RBI singles by Church and Gray brought in three runs to start off and, following two strikeouts, the Cats loaded the bases again.
Gilliam and McCarthy each recorded RBI walks before a wild pitch allowed senior Jase Felker, who was playing in place of Pitre, to score.
Church then singled yet again to bring in two more runs, putting Kentucky up 9-1 to close out the inning.
Sophomore Mason Moore relieved Smith in the fifth and walked three but did not allow Morehead State to score.
The Wildcats also couldn’t come up with a run in their half of the fifth as Felker recorded the only hit of the inning with a single up the middle.
Kentucky made another pitching change for the sixth, bringing in sophomore Jackson Nove for his first appearance of the season, who went on to pitch a scoreless inning while striking out two.
It seemed like the Cats could have piled on more runs in the bottom of the sixth, but a bases-loaded strikeout with two outs ended those aspirations.
Junior Seth Logue came in to pitch for Kentucky in the seventh and, despite allowing two hits, struck out two to end the half of the inning.
Kentucky reached the 10-run mark later in the inning from a sacrifice fly by Gilliam that scored sophomore Patrick Herrera, who was pinch-running for Burkes.
Church then brought in another after being hit by a pitch while the bases were loaded, scoring Felker before senior Isaiah Byars pinch-hit a sacrifice fly that brought in McCarthy.
Immediately after, sophomore Ryan Waldschmidt, pinch hitting for Gray, smacked an RBI single that brought home senior Chase Stanke.
Redshirt freshman James McCoy brought in two more runs from an RBI double, which was Kentucky’s first extra base hit of the game, to make the score 15-1.
Seth Chavez took the mound for the Wildcats in the eighth and led a three-up-three-down effort that included a strikeout to finish the inning.
The bottom of the eighth ended with the bases loaded for Kentucky though the team was not able to score in the inning.
The Cats closed the game with two pitchers making their inaugural appearances of the season: redshirt sophomore Evan Byers and redshirt freshman Christian Howe, the latter of which made the first appearance of his college career.
Both combined to make the ninth inning scoreless, including a three-pitch strikeout with the bases loaded by Howe to end the game.
“The fact that we keep getting guys more and more opportunities is big,” head coach Nick Mingione said. “As we keep getting more and more guys in the game, whether it be positional players or pitchers, some guys are going to have experience, and that’s going to be big for us.”
Kentucky will open its series against Indiana State on Friday, March 3, at 4 p.m. at Kentucky Proud Park.
