Kentucky baseball had its season ended in walk-off fashion against West Virginia, falling 6-5 in the Regional Final.
West Virginia has solidified itself as the villain of Kentucky’s postseason play. The Mountaineers have now prevented the Wildcats from advancing to the Super Regionals three times in as many games.
The Wildcats had just four hits in the first seven innings before a two-out rally in the eighth. The Wildcats trailed 5-1 entering the inning then tied the game with five consecutive two-out hits.
Tyler Bell and Luke Lawrence got it started with singles, Hudson Brown followed with a three-run home run to pull Kentucky back within one.
Ethan Hindle followed with a home run of his own to tie the game at 5-5.
This 5-5 tie allowed the Wildcats to force extra innings, but couldn’t swing things in their favor.
Jack Bennett put the first two runners of the 10th inning on base with a walk and a single. Armani Guzman walked it off with a single into center field.
Both of the first two games between the two teams this postseason began with at least one team getting out to a scorching start, with multiple first-inning runs. Both offenses started slower in this game.
The Mountaineers had their ace, Maxx Yehl, starting on the mound. Yehl was the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and entered the postseason with a 1.16 ERA.
He got the start in the Mountaineers and Wildcats first matchup, in which Kentucky chased him off with a four-run first inning. However, Yehl was suffering arm tightness in that game and was clearly not at his best.
That was not the case for Yehl in this start, the Wildcats were held scoreless with one hit in the first three innings.
West Virginia brought a run across after a dropped-third strike got past Owen Jenkins in the first inning.
Armani Guzman led off the third inning with a bunt-single, then stole second base. Guzman came across to score after two consecutive infield groundouts, giving West Virginia a 2-0 lead.
Hudson Brown got the Wildcats on the board in the top of the fourth with a solo home run.
Relief pitcher Jackson Soucie was used as the Wildcats opener in this game. He got through three innings before Kentucky called on its ace, Jaxon Jelkin, out of the bullpen.
Jelkin tossed a scoreless fourth inning, but struggled after. West Virginia led off the fourth with a double and walk, followed by an RBI-single that extended the lead to 3-1.
An RBI-double brought across another fourth-inning run that extended the Mountaineers lead to three runs.
Jelkin trotted back out for the sixth inning, and retired the first two batters of the inning. But, a solo home run by Gavin Kelly and a single by Paul Schoenfeld ended Jelkin’s day.
Ira Austin IV took over for Jelkin, and delivered 1.1 scoreless innings that allowed the Wildcats to come back and tie the game.
Austin IV handed it over to Bennett, who followed with two scoreless innings of his own to force extra innings.
Bennett was not able to carry his dominance into extra innings, resulting in a heartbreaking loss for the Wildcats.
Kentucky will head into the offseason looking to rebuild after coming up one game short of Super Regionals in back-to-back years. The Wildcats will have to cover for multiple key losses this offseason.
