Kentucky's Patrick Herrera shatters metal bat vs. Texas

There weren’t too many oddities in Texas‘ relatively quiet 6-3 win over Kentucky on Friday night. However, fans who stuck around until the end of the game were rewarded in the bottom of the ninth inning when Kentucky senior Patrick Herrera‘s bat inexplicably broke off at the handle after making contact on a swing.

While it’s not rare for bats to break in the MLB, it’s nearly unheard of at the collegiate level since teams use metal bats. Judging from his reaction, Herrera was just as surprised as fans to see the barrel of his bat soaring through the air.

The veteran infielder paused for a moment, seemingly in disbelief, before regaining his wits and running toward first base. He didn’t get too far before being thrown out. Kentucky wasn’t able to make any useful miracles happen in the rest of the inning and the Longhorns walked away victorious.

Patrick Herrera’s metal bat just snapped. pic.twitter.com/AldZYhCnSd

— Daniel Hager (@DanielHagerKSR) April 12, 2025

When Herrera’s bat isn’t breaking on him, he tends to find success. He is boasting a .333 batting average this season, along with 20 RBI’s. Despite Herrera’s solid hitting this season, Kentucky has struggled to find success.

The Wildcats are 5-8 in conference play and have lost 11 of their last 16 games. In fairness, eight of those 11 losses have been against teams present in D1Baseball’s Top 25 Rankings (No. 2 Texas, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Georgia and No. 14 Louisville).

Alas, Wildcats head coach Nick Mingione won’t settle for excuses. After taking the Wildcats to their first appearance in the College World Series in program history last summer, Mingione received a lucrative contract extension in the offseason.

Now, Mingione is on the hunt to build on Kentucky’s success. It’s not a complete surprise the Wildcats have failed to achieve that goal early this season. Kentucky lost 24 players from last year’s roster between the transfer portal, MLB Draft and graduation. Before the season kicked off, Mingione discussed the challenge of having a cohesive unit with so many fresh faces on the roster.

“They’re finally getting more and more comfortable with each other with each day and it’s been fun to see their growth,” Mingione said. “After our first scrimmage, I came home that day and I was like ‘we have a really long way to go.’ By the time we got to the end of the fall six weeks later I was really pleased with the growth we’ve made. We’re not where we want to be, but thank God we’re not where we used to be.”

Evidently, Kentucky has more work to do. On Saturday, Kentucky will take on Texas at 2 p.m. ET in Game 2 of the three-game series.