Kentucky grabs program's 2,000th win after dominant pitching performance
There was a sense of exuberance and joy in the air around Kentucky Proud Park on Saturday following the final out.
The Wildcats (18-10, 3-5 SEC) defeated No. 9 Ole Miss (18-8, 3-5) by a final score of 9-2 in a comeback effort to tie up the weekend series. In the process, Kentucky became the latest program at the university to reach the 2,000-win mark. The victory also marked UK’s eighth comeback win of the season and fifth overall against a top 10 opponent.
Williams throws a gem before injury scare
In his second start wearing a Wildcat uniform, Darren Williams looked like he finally found the role he was meant for. The grad transfer from Eastern Kentucky was dealing all day against the Rebels, only allowing three hits in over six innings of work. The one blip on his day was the first inning where he let up a pair of hits and a couple of runs. What he did though to keep Kentucky in the game while the bats took a while to get the gears moving was incredible, holding zeros across the board.
He moved his immaculate ERA to 0.93 in nearly 30 innings of work in the season.
“Gutsy man… he’s a dog,” Jake Plastiak said about Williams after the victory. “He’s the alpha dog of this staff and it was really nice to see him go out there and prove it.”
With one out in the seventh, Williams allowed a double to Kemp Alderman. He immediately appeared to look toward his elbow when head coach Nick Mingione and a trainer started running out to the mound. It was a quick conversation and Williams walked off the mound. Fear not though, as everything seems to be okay for the starter.
“He had a cut on his finger and when he was throwing it was acting funny,” Mingione said about his starter. “He’s fine, he came up to me after and he got checked out he was like ‘Coach I’m fine, everything is going to be good,’ There was some blood on the baseball so I threw that one out.”
Daniel Harper came in for Williams and continued the show. Harper came in to finish the last three innings with relative ease.
Bats break out in the end against Rebels
What a complete 180 we’ve seen from the Wildcats the past few weeks. While rolling through the initial non-conference tilt to begin the season all concerns seemed to be on the pitching staff and whether they would hold up enough to let the offense win them games. Oh how naive we all are at the time.
As a whole, the pitching staff has stepped up their game tremendously ever since going to Fayetteville a few weeks ago. The staff has done more than enough to legitimately win every series so far — it’s the offense that’s completely failed for the most part other than a couple of exceptions. Example: the last two contests against Georgia where UK combined for 28 runs over two days.
We saw an optimistic change on Saturday as the Wildcats were able to come back from a two-run hole to score four straight in the win. Hunter Jump and John Thrasher led the way, each grabbing four and three hits respectively, including an RBI triple from Thrasher that brought in the eventual game-winning run.
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“It really comes down to who makes the least amount of mistakes,” Jump said about the win. “It’s really up to the clutch hits, the clutch plays and little things like that. That’s how you win the game.”
The ‘Cats squeezed one across the board in the first inning, already facing a two-run deficit. Chase Estep went to steal third and the ball got to the base before he did, but was he somehow able to kick it out of the third basemen’s glove. One wild pitch later from Ole Miss starter Hunter Elliot and Estep was able to scamper home with Kentucky’s first run.
The ‘Cats broke through in the fifth to help tie the game. Thrasher made it to first with a bunt single, then hurried around to third on an errant pickoff throw. This allowed Jump to bring him in with a sac fly.
The transfer duo of Thrasher and Jump worked to give Kentucky the lead in the next frame. Following his RBI triple, the center fielder scored on a single from Jump to make it a 4-2 game.
Plastiak put the icing on top with two — yes multiple — two-run bombs to dead center in consecutive innings to put the game out of reach. It was his seventh and eighth home runs of the season, and his first since March 11th.
“Needed those man… I needed those,” Plastiak said after the two shots to center field. “Obviously there’s highs and lows and you go through rough stretches and I’ve been kinda on one of those. I’m looking to build on today to finish off the season strong and finish the series strong tomorrow and get a win.”
The victory for Kentucky stops the current losing streak before it could pile up, giving the Wildcats an exorbitant amount of confidence heading into the rubber match on Sunday. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. and will be on the SEC Network+
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