Bat 'Cats blown out in opening game of series with Florida

Mason Hazelwood and the Bat ‘Cats bullpen couldn’t hold up on Friday night while the bats failed to get anything going. Kentucky Baseball fell in a disastrous 9-2 blowout loss to Florida in the opening game of a weekend series.

Offense stays cold in Sunshine State

Following a 12-run outburst on Tuesday against Dayton, the Wildcats went back to stalling against SEC pitching. However, this one was decided less on Kentucky’s ability to hit, rather their ability to hit in clutch situations.

The ‘Cats had multiple innings with runners on base, tallying up six singles on the night. The issue though was once runners were on. They went 0-9 with runners in scoring position, leaving 10 on base throughout the night.

The first run on the night came from a solo home run in the eighth inning from Jake Plastiak when he crushed one over the center-field wall. It was the 11th of the season for the first basemen.

#Blastiak @jakeplas02 with No. 11 pic.twitter.com/Za1axMwCar

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) April 30, 2022

Devin Burkes followed that up in the ninth with a solo shot to center of his own for his first home run of the season.

Numero Uno for Devo!@Devin_Burkes pic.twitter.com/xC0jNIvKCv

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) April 30, 2022

Hazelwood fades late into start

It looked as if Mason Hazelwood was going to pull out another gem as the Kentucky starter had a stellar start to this one. The lefty allowed one hit through four innings, fanning three in the process. Though, the first hit was a leadoff home run off the bat of Wyatt Langford to give the Gators an immediate lead.

Hazelwood ran into trouble in the fifth. Four straight singles to start the inning already brought in a second run, then the grad student hit a batter with the bases loaded to gift Florida a third run.

Daniel Harper came in to relieve after the run. While he limited the damage given the situation he was thrown into, Harper didn’t get out unscathed. He let up two sac flies to make it a five-run game heading into the sixth.

Head Coach Nick Mingione went to Mason Moore next. He probably shouldn’t of.

The freshman gave up three runs on three hits in his lone inning of work, including a two-run shot off the bat of Sterlin Thompson.

The loss moves Kentucky to 23-19 on the year with a poor 6-13 record within the SEC. The chance of a playoff birth, even an SEC tournament birth, is slipping away every day for the ‘Cats. They absolutely need to take the next two of this series.

Game two is set for 6 p.m. EST on Saturday and will be shown on SEC Network+.