Kentucky Baseball falls to Kansas 10-6 in Regional Opener

It was a rough day at the ballpark as the 'Cats fell to Kansas 10-6 in the first game of the UofL Regional. The game that was originally scheduled for 2:00 PM ET wouldn't start until 2:30 and was delayed several more times due to rain, finally wrapping up at 8:40 PM. UK Coach Gary Henderson took a risk by not starting ace A.J. Reed, a risk that would prove detrimental as every pitcher Kentucky put on the mound got manhandled, collectively giving up 10 runs on the day. As for A.J. Reed, he had a quiet day at the plate with no hits and two walks in four at-bats. While there is still a chance, the loss means it's unlikely the 'Cats will win the regional, especially considering the injuries to UK's pitching staff. UK will play in the loser's bracket tomorrow at noon against the loser of the UofL-Kent State game, which will be getting underway here soon. We'll be back later with quotes from the post-game press conference, so stay tuned for more. Nick and I did a live-diary of the game, so check it out here if you want a more in-depth look at how everything went down Post Game Quotes Gary Henderson on Kyle Cody and his short outing:

“I did not see that coming.  Kyle threw last Wednesday in Hoover, went 5.1 innings and (allowed) four hits and two runs against the Gators in front of 7,500 people so I certainly thought he was ready for the day.”

...and on if Cody with pitch again in the series.

“He threw 27 pitches... He’ll have a day off and be ready to go on Sunday... I don’t know what we’ll do or where, or what role but he’ll be ok.”

On not starting A.J. Reed:

" I was very glad that we didn't have to sit A.J. (Reed) there (during the rain delay) and lose him and not get as long of an outing as we would have anticipated.  So, hopefully we don’t have to worry about that tomorrow. "I think if we go A.J. he doesn't get to pitch nine innings today. That’s certainly what we need out of him. That how we’re built"

On what he told the team after the game:

“Last Friday I’m sitting at Hoover and our gals (UK Softball) lost the first game and ESPN threw that 85% number up on the TV. You lose the first one, the winner has an 85% chance of moving on and our gals won two the next day so really the only thing we have is tomorrow’s game."

On Playing through the loser's bracket

"We’ll its hard. The bottom line is it’s hard but it’s not impossible. It’ll probably happen this year with somebody. Somebody will probably go through the loser’s bracket and win so it might as well be us.  We've got one thing in front of us and that’s tomorrows ballgame and that’s it and that’s all we need to be worried about "

On scouting for Kent State or Louisville with such a short turn around:

“I’ll watch the next game… we know what we need to know… the nature of what we do is this tournament… these kids have been brought up their whole careers doing stuff like this. Rain delays, lightning delays, double headers… it’s our culture, it’s what we do.  Not knowing who we’re playing, that’s not a problem… We’re prepared, we've got scouting reports I've watched all the video, I've got more if I want to… I’ll be here watching tonight.”

A.J. Reed on UK's chances of coming out of the loser's bracket to win the regional:

"We’re a good team… we can go win four game in a row, we've done it before this year… it all starts with tomorrow"

The Cats will play in an elimination game tomorrow at 1pm against the loser of the Louisville/Kent State game (read: Kent State). See you in a few hours Go Cats.