Kentucky jumps to No. 4 in D1Baseball Top 25 Rankings

After its series victory over now No. 5 ranked Arkansas, Kentucky jumped back into the top five in the latest D1Baseball Top 25 Rankings.

The Cats rose from No. 8 to No. 4, its second highest ranking of the season. They were ranked as high as No. 3 in the country back on April 15.

After dropping the opening game of the series 10-3, the Cats outscored the Hogs 18-7 over the final two games to hand them just their second conference series loss of the season. The series victory marked Kentucky’s first over Arkansas since 2012.

Because then ranked No. 1 Texas A&M and No. 2 Arkansas both lost series this weekend, No. 3 Tennessee jumped both squads for the top spot in the rankings for the first time this season.

Kentucky is just one of seven SEC teams in this week’s rankings. The Cats are joined by No. 1 Tennessee, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 13 South Carolina, No. 14 Mississippi State, and No. 16 Georgia. After being swept by Georgia, Vanderbilt dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time this season. Alabama dropped out of the rankings as well after a series loss at Mississippi State.

Following Kentucky’s win on Sunday, it improved to 35-10 (18-6) to remain a game ahead of Tennessee in the SEC East and a game ahead of Arkansas and Tennessee (17-7) in the SEC.

With six conference games remaining, the Cats control their own destiny. Kentucky has won just one SEC regular season conference championship in program history (2006).

The Cats will now travel to Cincinnati for its first midweek game in two weeks on Tuesday for a non-conference matchup with Xavier. First pitch is at 3:00 p.m. EST and the game will be streaming on Flo Sports.