Nick Mingione describes the value of Kentucky's versatility on offense

No. 8 Kentucky took down No. 2 Arkansas 7-4 on Sunday, ultimately taking the weekend series 2-1 after taking the final two games.

Kentucky’s offensive unit scored 18 runs during that two-game stretch and did so in several different ways. That was all a part of the game plan, according to Wildcats head coach Nick Mingione.

“We are at our best when we just do a ton of things,” Mingione said on the field postgame. “So if you think about today, we laid down a bunt and scored a run, we had a home run — two home runs to score three of our runs. We had two-strike base hits, we used the middle back side of the field. We just when we’re at our best.

“We do that we had a delayed steal, we had another stolen base. When we’re at our best, we’re scoring and we’re doing a bunch of different things and today was no different. Give those guys credit, I mean, it’s one thing to call a play but it’s a whole other thing to actually execute it and we executed a very high level over the past two games.”

Kentucky’s bats were hot from the start on Sunday, as Émilien Pitre continued his big performance from Saturday by hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning. In the previous game, he delivered a two-run double off the wall in the second inning and another two-run double in the fourth in what was a statement 11-3 win at Kentucky Proud Park.

Nick Lopez kept things going in the third, homering down the left-field line to score two additional runs. The fourth inning is where things would get out of hand for the Razorbacks’ pitching staff, as Kentucky punished the Arkansas bullpen in several different ways.

Nolan McCarthy doubled to right center to begin the onslaught. Grant Smith scored McCarthy on a sacrifice bunt one out later. Ryan Waldschmidt doubled, Pitre returned right after to score one run on a double of his own as well. Devin Burkes rounded things out with a sac fly to score Waldschmidt to score the third run of the inning.

This would effectively put the game out of reach for Arkansas, who were able to gain four runs back in the latter innings. However, the three-run fourth inning would end up being the difference in the final score.

The series win pushed the Wildcats up to No. 4 in the latest D1 Baseball Rankings ahead of their midweek matchup at Xavier on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET in Cincinnati.