Nick Lopez: There was never a doubt Kentucky would win series over Arkansas

The Kentucky Wildcats hosted the Arkansas Razorbacks over the weekend for a key series, but for Kentucky star Nick Lopez, there was never a doubt that the Wildcats were going to win the series.

This was an incredibly important series within SEC play and as far as the national landscape is concerned, the Friday night loss was hard for Kentucky to take. Still, Lopez believed that Kentucky was going to win the series because of the resiliency of the players on the team.

“It’s an amazing feeling coming back and knowing that we’ve got a bunch of dogs on our team that no matter what it looks like, we’re going to come back and win,” Nick Lopez said. “So, there was never a doubt that we were going to come back and win the next two games.”

After losing the Friday game 10-3, Kentucky bounced back with wins of 11-3 and 7-4 over Arkansas in the series.

Nick Lopez also went on to praise Kentucky’s dugout. In particular, he praised the dugout for its energy and how they made things easier for the team to rally around on the field.

For his part, Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said that the Razorbacks didn’t deserve to get a win in the series.

“No excuses,” Van Horn said. “We’ve played a lot of games in the last four weeks. Done pretty well. None of our midweek games have been against easy teams. We’ve had to play hard and pitch hard. It’s tough losing the series, especially on the road like this. We felt like if we could’ve just swung the bats a little bit better. But we didn’t deserve to win this series honestly.”

Following the series, Kentucky is at the top of the SEC East. The Wildcats have an 18-6 conference record and are 35-10 overall this season. Arkansas, meanwhile, is the top team in the SEC West right now. At 17-7 following the series loss to Kentucky, the Razorbacks are 40-9 overall. Both teams are ranked in the top 10 nationally.

Nick Lopez is a graduate student who can play the infield or act as a designated hitter for the Wildcats. Prior to this season, he’s made stops at USC, Santa Ana Community College, and Illinois-Chicago. This season, Lopez has a .373 batting average, a .435 OBP, and a .584 slugging percentage. He also has five home runs and 38 RBIs.

In the three games against Arkansas, Nick Lopez had four hits in 10 at-bats. He only took one at-bat during the Wildcats’ Friday night loss to the Razorbacks. Over the course of that series, He had a home run and six RBIs. That was his first home run since he had a two home run game against Auburn. Throughout the series, Lopez acted as a DH for the Wildcats and didn’t see any action in the field.

Next up for Kentucky, the Wildcats are going to play Xavier for a mid-week series. After that, the Wildcats are going to have another SEC test against Florida on the road.