Kentucky Baseball Handles Business, Downs Murray State 6-2

The Bat ‘Cats welcomed the nearby Murray State Racers to Kentucky Proud Park on Tuesday afternoon for a midweek one-and-done matchup. Kentucky improved to 10-2 on the season after defeating their neighbors 5-2. Props to the Racers, however, as their pitching was fantastic. Murray finished with a combined 15 strikeouts against the Wildcats.

With Tuesday’s victory, Kentucky improved to 22-7 all-time against the Racers.

Redshirt freshman RHP Travis Smith made his third start of the season for the ‘Cats. Smith continued to be on an early season pitch count, going four innings in Tuesday’s contest. Travis is gradually making his way back from Tommy John surgery and is making good progress. He now has 11 innings under his belt and continues to improve game after game. Smith struck out two in his season debut, four in his second start, and six in Tuesday’s start.

Progress, Kentucky fans… progress.

Pitre Knocks First Career Home Run

After Smith sat down the Racer hitters in order to start the game, base-hit machine Émilien Pitre roped his first career home run to left center field to get the ‘Cats on the board. Pitre’s homer was the first of his career and it went 394 feet. He became the fifth Wildcat with a longball this season.

Left on left crime!!@emilien_pitre with his first career #BigBlueBomb to make it 2-0 in the first!

SECN+ pic.twitter.com/Ipp6Xj5Qet

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) March 7, 2023

“Émilien’s a dog”, teammate Hunter Gilliam said of Pitre. “He’s just a great guy who works really hard. He isn’t going to cool down.” Pitre has been phenomenal this season, playing like one of the best sophomores in the SEC. Pitre has 20 hits in 42 at-bats, good for a blistering .476 batting average.

This one looked like it would open up nicely for the ‘Cats early, but that was not the case.

Racers Respond Immediately

Following Kentucky’s two-run first inning, the offense dried up for the ‘Cats. SS Riley Hawthorne secured Murray’s first hit of the afternoon with a single up the middle in the top of the second. After a walk of CF Seth Gardner, Murray catcher Ethan Krizen knocked a single to left field to score Hawthorne from second.

Murray State LHP Ethan Lyke, who pitched a great game, struck out the side and set the Racers up nicely to cut into their deficit. Lyke ended up pitching five innings, allowing six hits and just two runs. In the top of the third, the Racers tied the game on a 1B Brennan McCullough triple down the right field line. This scored RF Dustin Mercer all the way from first base, knotting this one up much to the delight of a few Racer fans who made the nearly four-hour drive from Murray.

Both offenses failed to score following the third inning until the bottom of the sixth. For the first time in five innings, the ‘Cats showed signs of life. Émilien Pitre continued his hot streak with a single up the middle, followed by another single from Hunter Gilliam. Pitre darted for third base and ended up trotting home thanks to an overthrow of third baseman Carson Garner by catcher Ethan Krizen. With Gilliam on second, however, the next two Wildcats struck out and grounded out, ending the inning.

Pitching Wins Games

Sophomore LHP Jackson Nove took over in relief of Travis Smith following the fourth inning and plugged in nicely. Nove faced 10 batters in three innings of work, walking just one and allowing no hits.

“I’m proud of Jackson Nove”, Head coach Nick Mingione said postgame. “What an outing that he had. At one point he had three pitches and three outs. Can’t do any better than that.”

With the Wildcats leading by a string heading into the bottom of the eighth, the Captain sealed this one away. 1B Hunter Gilliam roped a two-run triple off the left field wall, scoring Émilien Pitre and Devin Burkes after their respective singles. Gilliam went 3-4 on the night with two RBI. Streaking LF Ryan Waldschmidt added some more insurance, singling up the middle to score Gilly from third.

“We have one goal, and that’s to play until the end of June,” Gilliam said after the win. “We’re a bunch of junkyard dogs.”

The Kentucky pitching staff didn’t allow a Murray State hit through the final 6.2 innings. With a struggling offense, their pitching came through big. Sophomore RHP Mason Moore entered in the eighth inning and shut the next six Racers down, preserving a Wildcat victory and earning his third save of the season.

The Bat ‘Cats will be back in action on Wednesday when they welcome the Ohio Bobcats to Kentucky Proud Park. First pitch is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. EST.