Kentucky baseball came up just short in a 5-4 loss against Arkansas on Friday night. The Wildcats fell to 13-16 in league play and 31-19 overall on the year.
The celebrations from the critical game one win carried over into the pregame festivities before game two as it was senior night at Kentucky Proud Park. The team honored the following seniors: Luke Lawrence, Ira Austin IV, Jack Bennett, Jackson Soucie, Tyler Cerny, Carson Hansen, Scott Campbell Jr., Will Marcy and Alex Duffey.
“Awesome group of men that want to win,” UK coach Nick Mingione said about the seniors. “We got some seniors that, quite frankly, they're not playing as much as they like, but the way they serve our team is unbelievable. They have just great hearts, and a group I'm certainly really gonna miss.”
Before diving into the action, a scary moment occurred in the third inning involving Kentucky freshman right fielder Braxton Van Cleave. He hit a game-tying RBI single and was trying to stretch it into a double before colliding with Arkansas shortstop Camden Kozeal.
The two players collided at full speed. Kozeal got up fairly quickly and remained in the game, but Van Cleave stayed down for at least 10 minutes. He was immediately tended to by the training staff and surrounded by teammates and coaches. Van Cleave was eventually stretchered off the field and placed into an ambulance.
“They're doing some imaging and things on his face. The left side of his face was extremely numb when we were out there, so they're doing imaging and gonna figure out the results, but he's conscious and everything like that,” Mingione said. “But just waiting to see what happens with all that imaging, and really, he has some swelling. So, we'll know more as that continues to go down, but scary moment.”
Junior lefty Ben Cleaver got the start for Kentucky, looking to build upon his previous two outings. “The Reaper” has looked much closer to the pitcher Kentucky expected at the beginning of the season as he’s thrown 11 innings of one-run ball over his last two outings. The lefty got two quick outs before giving up a double, but a popout kept him clean through one.
Kentucky had a similar first inning at the plate as the first two batters were retired, but Lawrence and DH Ethan Hindle singled. However, both runners were stranded. Cleaver worked around a single in the second to keep the Razorbacks off the board. Marcy and first baseman Hudson Brown singled to open the second before a strikeout, pick off and another strikeout promptly ended the inning.
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Arkansas right fielder Zack Stewart closed out game one with a home run off Kentucky’s ace Jaxon Jelkin, who was on in relief, and topped that with a home run off Cleaver in his first at-bat of game two. The left-hander retired the next three batters in order to end the frame.
The Kentucky offense kept knocking at the door before finally coming through in the third. Center fielder Jayce Tharnish was plunked to start the inning and stole second with one out. Van Cleave singled up the middle to drive home Tharnish to tie the game before the collision halted play.
Once play resumed, a groundout ended the inning and Cleaver returned to the hill in the fourth. He struck out the first batter of the inning before Kozeal hit a homer to give the Razorbacks the lead right back. Cleaver got the next two batters out to end the frame.
Brown tied the game once again with a solo shot to left-center field as the seesaw battle continued. Cleaver worked one out into the fifth before trouble found him as a pair of walks and a single loaded the bags. This brought Mingione out of the dugout as he called upon Austin IV to work out of the jam.
“I thought he did a good job, he got us into the fifth, he gave up a couple home runs, and immediately responded and got an out right after that, and really kept the game in check, so he's done well,” Mingione said. “Even the last handful of weeks, he's thrown the ball exceptionally well, and given us a chance, that's what he did again today, he gave us a chance, so he's definitely trending right, and we feel really good about where our starting pitching is going at this point.”
The righty rolled the groundball he needed, but the middle infield could not finish out the double play, which allowed a run to score. Austin IV struck out the next batter to end the frame. Unlike the previous two innings, Kentucky did not respond at the plate as it went three-up, three-down. The senior relievers continued to roll out of the pen as Soucie was up next in the sixth and he worked around a walk to keep the score at 3-2.
Superstar shortstop Tyler Bell was presented with a huge opportunity in the sixth as he stepped up with the bases loaded and two outs, but he struck out to end the threat. Soucie struck out one batter in the seventh before sophomore righty Burkley Bounds took over and gave up a double to the first batter he faced. An RBI-double by Kuhio Aloy brought home a huge insurance run for the Razorbacks as they took a 4-2 lead.
The offense immediately responded as Lawrence singled and Hindle doubled to cut the deficit down to one and he advanced to third on a botched pickoff. Brown brought him home on a sacrifice bunt to tie the game 4-4.
Sophomore lefty Leighton Harris finished out the seventh and was back on for the eighth and he walked the leadoff man, which ended his outing. Mingione called upon Adcock to try to keep the tie. Nolan Souza doubled off Adcock to score the runner and break the tie. The righty got a big strikeout to strand two and keep the deficit at one.
The final opportunity for the Bat Cats came with two outs in the eighth as Bell reached and Hindle roped a two-out double, but a magnificent play in center to cut the ball off prevented Bell from attempting to score. Campbell Jr. struck out to end the threat. Adcock worked around a single and walked in the ninth to keep the score at 5-4. However, Kentucky struck out three straight times in the ninth to lose the game.
Overall, Kentucky out-hit Arkansas 11-9, but the Bat Cats left 13 runners on compared to the Razorbacks' 11. Furthermore, Kentucky finished 2-12 (.167) with runners in scoring position. The Wildcats were solid with runners on as they went 7-22 (.318) but just could not get the big swing.
Cleaver allowed three runs on five hits, two walks and three strikeouts across his 4.1 innings of work. Austin IV, Adcock and Soucie did not allow any runs out of the bullpen across their four innings combined in relief. Harris and Bounds each allowed a run in their 0.2 combined innings.
Kentucky will play in its seventh series-deciding game three of the 2026 SEC slate on Saturday at 2 p.m.
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