Cole Stupp leaves with injury as Kentucky drops series-opener to Georgia

Cole Stupp was having himself a pretty decent outing against his home state squad before the injury bug bit him on Friday night. Stupp went over five innings of three-run ball before leaving with a forearm injury in the 4-2 loss to Georgia, dropping the Wildcats to 0-4 in SEC play this season.

Battled one of top pitchers in the country but came up a tad short. pic.twitter.com/PhVZl5q7S4

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) March 26, 2022

Long ball foils good outing from Stupp before injury

The Milton, GA native started to look more like himself as Kentucky starts to get into the weeds of their SEC schedule. Following a four-inning outing last weekend at Arkansas that resulted in only one earned run against Stupp, he went 5.1 innings, striking out six before being taken out against UGA. He did however record a career-high four walks in the game, which is rare for the usually in-command junior.

Despite that, Stupp didn’t look particularly bad. He was able to keep the game in reach for Kentucky, but the offense just simply couldn’t help him out, waiting until the fifth inning to record their first hit. His big error came in the top of the fifth, giving up a two-run bomb over the bullpen in left field to Josh McAllister. It was the third home run of the year for the Bulldog shortstop.

As it’s been for most of the season too, Stupp racked up his pitch count early and often. When he left in the sixth, he was up to 98 pitches. His ERA sits at 6.31 after the outing.

“He felt something in his forearm on the outside of his arm so obviously not gonna run him back out there,” Head coach Nick Mingione said after the loss. “We’ll get him checked out tomorrow.”

Mason Hazelwood came out of the bullpen to take over for Stupp and was able to get out of a bases-loaded situation in the sixth before faltering in the next frame. After giving up a leadoff triple, John Thrasher was unable to hold on to a line drive down center, allowing for the fourth Georgia run to score. That was the last batter Hazelwood would see before being taken out in favor of Daniel Harper.

Offense still struggling in the SEC

As previously noted, Kentucky waited until they were already down three runs in the fifth inning before recording their first hit. Kirk Liebert and Alonzo Rubalcaba led off the inning with two consecutive singles from John Cannon, who came into the game with a 1.83 ERA over five starts this season. The ‘Cats were able to bring in their first run of the game when Daniel Harris grounded out to the second basemen, allowing Liebert to come in and score.

Harris was at the epicenter of the other run tonight for Kentucky. Following another Rubalcaba single in the seventh, the second basemen launched an RBI double to the right-center wall for his second RBI of the night.

Otherwise, the rest of the bats continued to struggle, Hunter Jump was the only other Wildcat to record a hit.

“The guy we were facing is about to be a first-rounder, he’s going to be a top-20 pick,” Mingione said about Georgia’s Cannon. “He don’t walk you… he didn’t walk us tonight and he made a lot of really good pitches. He makes it hard on your guys… we had our chances and we didn’t capitalize, we didn’t do enough.”

Kentucky needs a change it seems, and they’ll get that on Saturday when Darren Williams makes his first start as a Wildcat. The transfer from Eastern Kentucky has been fantastic this season, pitching to a 0.48 ERA over seven appearances. The ‘Cats desperately need a win otherwise an 0-5 start in conference play is going to cast serious doubt about the legitimacy of this team.

The middle game of the series on Saturday is set to start at 2 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted on the SEC Network+.