No. 23 Kentucky baseball defeats Alabama 9-5 to clinch first SEC road series of season
Kentucky Wildcats pitcher Ryan Hagenow (24) pitches the ball during the Kentucky vs. Indiana State baseball game on Sunday, March 5, 2023, at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky won 7-6. Photo by Travis Fannon | Staff
March 25, 2023
No. 23 Kentucky baseball (21-2) defeated Alabama (18-6) at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Saturday to clinch its first SEC road series of the season.
The victory also further extended the Wildcats’ win streak, which is the longest currently active streak in Division-1 baseball, and the team’s longest since 2012. The 5-0 start in SEC play also marked the best start to conference play since 1992 for Kentucky.
Left-hander Tyler Bosma, a graduate student who previously played at Miami Ohio, started on the mound for Kentucky.
The only runner to reach base for either team in the first inning was senior Jase Felker, who walked but was caught stealing.
Kentucky put one run on the board in the top of the second after sophomore Ryan Waldschmidt scored on a wild pitch.
Bosma allowed two hits in the bottom of the second, but did not let any runs in, maintaining Kentucky’s 1-0 lead going into the third.
After putting runners on first and third, redshirt sophomore Devin Burkes reached on a bunt that scored senior Jackson Gray for the second run of the game.
Alabama got two runners on base following a shaky start to the bottom of the third by Bosma, but the Crimson Tide was quickly shut down without any runs scored.
A two-run single by sophomore Nolan McCarthy added two more runs for Kentucky, giving it a 4-0 lead.
The Crimson Tide responded quickly with three runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth.
After the first run, which was from an RBI single, junior Austin Strickland took the mound for Kentucky and struck out the last batter of the inning despite the slow start.
The “Bat Cats” lived up to their name even further in the fifth inning, scoring three runs to put them up 7-3 and negate all three of Alabama’s runs.
Redshirt senior Hunter Gilliam, one of Kentucky’s most powerful hitters, hit a single that brought in Burkes before the second run came from a sacrifice bunt by Waldschmidt that allowed sophomore Emilien Pitre to score.
Finishing off the scoring effort, McCarthy brought in his third run of the game with a single that scored Gilliam.
Strickland then struck out one in the process of pitching a scoreless four-batter inning to maintain the lead for Kentucky.
After a scoreless sixth inning for both teams, an RBI groundout by senior Chase Stanke and a balk scored two more runs for the Wildcats.
Alabama matched that total in its half of the seventh with RBIs from a groundout and single back-to-back.
Both teams then went three-up-three-down in the eighth and, although Kentucky got a little bit of action in the top of the ninth from a single and steal from Waldschmidt, no runs were scored.
Right-handed junior Ryan Hagenow was sent to the mound to get the final three outs for the Wildcats to clinch the series, and he did so with three straight batters, striking out two.
Although Kentucky was outhit by Alabama 12-9 in the game, the production of those hits and consistent pitching proved to be the difference that put Kentucky in the win column in the end.
Kentucky will attempt to complete a series sweep over Alabama on Sunday, March 26, at noon EST at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The game can be viewed live on the SEC Network.
