Nick Mingione praises Mason Moore for bouncing back with 5 strong innings on Sunday

After a couple rough weeks of pitching from Kentucky, the Wildcat arms really showed up on Saturday and Sunday to help the Bat Cats secure a massive series victory over No. 2 ranked Arkansas.

On Sunday, it was starter Mason Moore who really set the tone and provided five terrific innings of work after a few of his recent starts hadn’t gone so well. In fact, Moore himself admitted he didn’t have his top-tier stuff against the Razorbacks, but he was still able to provide five innings of work, including four scoreless before the Hogs added a pair of runs in the fifth.

After the win, Mingione had nothing but praise for his Sunday starter and noted that, even when Moore isn’t at his A+ level, he’s still not giving away any easy at bats.

“Yeah, here’s the thing about Mason. It’s just really hard to hit him. He doesn’t give up a lot of hits,” said Mingione. “So there are times where — what he might have lost his own a little bit, but it’s just really hard to string together hit after hit after hit.”

Those strings of hits didn’t come like they had in some recent Kentucky performances where teams put up 10+ runs, and that’s all the head coach could ask for.

“He stayed on the attack and got us five big ones. You know, if you told me coming into today he was going to get his five innings, I would take it.”

One reporter asked Nick Mingione about Mason Moore’s change in pace at the mound, since he was trying to stay in a quicker rhythm while also changing up his delivery style — and he leaned on his athleticism to make that happen.

“That was one of the biggest ones. Mason is so athletic. I mean, I’ve told you guys, I remember him being in high school and him sending me videos of him dunking. And I’m like ‘alright, I want to see some of you striking guys out now in the spring,’ right. Like, he’s super athletic.

“So he’s at his best when he’s moving quick through space and I thought he did that. I thought it made his stuff sharper, it makes him harder to hit. He did a good job, you know, mixing his holds and varying different timings and thought it really helped.”

Perhaps not Moore’s best game, but he came in and held the No. 2 team in the nation to just two runs, allowing the Wildcats to get out to a 6-0 lead they would never relinquish. It’s hard to be unhappy with that sort of outing.