Flawless Pitching Carries Kentucky Baseball to Series Win Over Elon

After losing to the Phoenix in the season opener, Coach Nick Mingione and the ‘Cats righted the ship to take games two and three as Kentucky baseball won its season-opening series two games to one.

After accruing just four hits in their season-opening loss on Friday, the floodgates opened up for the offense in games two and three. The ‘Cats combined for seven hits in their 5-1 victory on Saturday and 11 hits in their 4-0 victory on Sunday. Along with the awakening of the bats, the Wildcat pitching staff was the major story of the weekend.

Graduate student Tyler Bosma shined in his first start of the year. Bosma threw six shutout innings, allowed just two hits, and struck out four in Saturday’s outing. He was relieved by junior Austin Strickland in the seventh, who finished the game for the ‘Cats. Strickland allowed just one hit and one run on a sacrifice fly.

Boz = A bad man. @T_Boz4 pic.twitter.com/Xz5kSodXMF

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) February 18, 2023

Senior Zack Lee started on the bump for the ‘Cats on Sunday and continued where Bosma left off. Lee threw five shutout innings, allowed only two hits and struck out seven of 19 batters faced. Following Lee’s departure in the sixth, Ryder Giles, Magdiel Cotto, Ryan Hagenow, and Seth Chavez helped contribute to the shutout victory.

Kentucky pitchers had an ERA of 1.04 with 32 strikeouts and only five walks on opening weekend. UK’s pitchers gave up just one run over the final 23 IP. Pure domination from the Kentucky pitching staff.

Sophomore Emilien Pitre was the Wildcats’ most outstanding offensive player of the series, totaling four hits and two RBI in three games (all four hits came on Sunday). Pitre got the bats rolling on Sunday, singling to score Ryan Waldschmidt early in the first inning. Three singles later, Pitre found himself with an impressive four-hit game.

Redshirt sophomore Devin Burkes hit the first Kentucky home run of the season in the fifth inning of Sunday’s 4-0 victory, increasing the lead from one to three for the ‘Cats. Burkes seems to be picking up right where he left off after last season’s stellar SEC Tournament performance.

Kentucky starts the season 2-1 and will host Evansville in the home opener at Kentucky Proud Park on Tuesday at 4 PM.