Kentucky Opens Round Rock Classic with Loss to Washington St.
Kentucky Baseball mustered just two hits as they suffered their first loss of the season to Washington State 6-4 Friday night.
Kentucky’s top three batters (Nick Lopez, Ryan Nicholson, and Devin Burkes) were a combined 0-12 at the plate. Burkes however was hit by a pitch on three occasions.
The Kentucky and Washington State pitching staffs combined to hit nine batters, which set a new Round Rock Classic record.
Washington State RHP Grant Taylor gave up 10 hits and five earned runs to Utah Tech in their season opener last Friday night. Taylor however was a completely different pitcher against the Cats, giving up just one hit and one earned run in 6.0 innings. He didn’t allow a hit over his final 5.0 innings on the mound.
Redshirt sophomore RHP Travis Smith made his second start of the season for Kentucky, allowing six hits and three earned runs in 5.0 innings.
After four games of shuffled lineup cards, it does finally appear that Nick Mingione has finally settled on Kentucky’s starting lineup. When Ryan Waldschmidt returns from injury however, he will take over in left field. Nolan McCarthy will shift over to right field.
Kentucky falls to 4-1 on the year.
Cats Scratch First
Travis Smith shut down the Washington State offense in the top of the first, giving the Cats an early chance to jump in front.
After two quick outs to begin the bottom of the first, Devin Burkes was plunked, putting the speedy catcher on first base. Émilien Pitre, who has had a slow start to the 2024 season, came up to bat.
Pitre came through for the Cats, drilling a sharp liner to the right-center field wall to drive in Burkes all the way from first. Pitre tried legging out a triple, but was thrown out at third. Alas, Kentucky had jumped ahead 1-0.
Pitre’s double would be Kentucky’s only hit until the seventh inning.
Wazzu Takes Over
Following Pitre’s first inning RBI-double, Washington State completely took over the game.
The Cougars threatened multiple times throughout the first three innings until they finally hit pay dirt in the fourth.
Travis Smith gave up back-to-back singles to start the fourth, putting two runners on for Wazzu. They then took a page from Nick Mingione’s playbook, bunting to advance their runner to third. Kyle Russell was thrown out at second, putting runners on the corners with just one out.
Nate Swarts finally broke through for the Cougar offense, blasting a deep drive off the left-center field wall for a bases clearing triple. Suddenly, the Cats were trailing.
They added onto their lead in the fourth and fifth innings with a Max Hartman RBI-single and a Casen Taggart RBI-ground out. The Washington State offense had come to life, but someone had forgotten to wake up the Bat Cats.
The Cougars led 4-1 midway through seven.
Wacky Seventh Inning Pulls Cats Within One
The Wildcat offense, which had notched just one hit through the first six innings, showed signs of life in the seventh.
Patrick Herrera (HBP) and Mitch Daly were walked, putting two runners on with no outs for the Cats. Nolan McCarthy, who represented the tying run, delivered with a hard-hit single through the left side of the infield. Herrera scored standing up, cutting the deficit to just two runs.
What happened next was one of those “you have to see it to believe it plays.”
Ty Crittenberger layed down a nice bunt, which was fielded by Washington State RHP Andrew Baughn. With Daly breaking to third, Baughn came up firing with a throw to the hot corner. However, Wazzu third baseman Cole Cramer was nowhere in sight.
Baughn’s throw hit the third base umpire Blake Felix, allowing Daly to scamper home for another Kentucky run.
Momentum had seemingly flipped to Kentucky’s side, but the inning was abruptly ended after Nick Lopez hit into an unassisted double play. The Cats had cut into the lead however, trailing 4-3 through seven innings.
Cougars Hold On in Round Rock
Just as it seemed Kentucky was about to break through, RHP Trey Pooser walked in two Wazzu runs with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth inning. The Cats were only able to respond with one run in the latter half of the inning, thanks to a Patrick Herrera sac-fly.
Washington State RHP Chase Grillo, who entered in the eighth inning, finished things off for the Cougars. Kentucky put runners on first and second with no outs in the ninth, but failed to conjure up another comeback victory.
Kentucky will look to earn their first win in the Classic tomorrow against Texas State (5:00 p.m. EST).
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