Observations (3/1): Pitching leads the way in sweep over St. John's

No. 22 Kentucky kept it rolling on the mound in a 3-1 win over St. John's to secure the series sweep. The win moves the Bat Cats to 9-2 on the season. 

Pitching led the way in the entire series as the arms only surrendered two runs across the three-game set.

Below are some takeaways.

Nate Harris sets career-high in strikeouts

After Jaxon Jelkin dominated in game one and Ben Cleaver gutted his way through three innings in game two, Nate Harris was up next for the series finale. He took the hill following a 3-0 shutout in game two after stellar performances from the bullpen.

Harris himself was coming off a nice outing against Evansville, where he tossed five innings of one-run ball and struck out seven. 

The first inning for the righty started similarly to Cleaver’s outing, where he had to work around early traffic on the bases following a leadoff single. However, it was erased after a strikeout due to batter interference on a throwdown attempt to throw out the runner. 

Harris then started getting through the Red Storm lineup like Jelkin as he tossed three-up, three-down frames in the second, third and fourth innings of play.

“​​I feel great. The shutdown innings were important, but I feel like our offense getting off to that good start kind of set the tone for the whole game,” Harris said. 

He came back out for the fifth and gave up a leadoff double to Shaun McMillan and a walk to the next batter. However, he retired the next three hitters in order to keep St. John's off the board.

The righty returned for the sixth and surrendered another leadoff double before striking out the next two batters. Jayder Raifstanger got Harris with an RBI single to get the Red Storm on the board. The next batter reached on an error to move runners to the corners before Harris got out of another jam.

He finished giving up the lone run on four hits and one walk through his six innings of work. He set his career-high in strikeouts (9) after tying his previous career-high (7) last weekend.

"He's been landing multiple pitches for a strike,” UK coach Nick Mingione said about Harris’ strikeouts. “His ability to just move the fastball. He threw sinkers, he threw four-seamers, he threw multiple off-speed pitches, I mean, just his ability to do that.”

The starting trio of Jelkin, Cleaver and Harris gave up one run in a combined 16.1 innings of work. 

“We hold each other to a high standard, and we have a job to do, and we all trust each other to go and do that job,” Harris said about the pitching staff.

Offense starts hot, then cools off significantly

The Wildcats put up three runs in every game of this series. All of Kentucky's runs came in the first three innings of the series finale.

Center fielder Jayce Tharnish got the action started in the first with a single and a stolen base. Second baseman Ethan Hindle opened the scoring with an RBI single to increase his team lead to 11 on the year. Catcher Owen Jenkins repeated Tharnish’s effort with a walk and a stolen base in the second before being driven home by freshman third baseman Caeden Cloud, who was making his second consecutive start in place of Tyler Cerny.

Hindle repeated the feat yet again in the third as he was hit by a pitch, then stole second. This time, left fielder Carson Hansen got the knock with an RBI single into right that boosted the lead to 3-0. 

“That's one thing I like about our offense, is we've situationally hit for the most part,” Mingione said. “We've done a really good job this season, and we need to keep it going.”

The bats cooled down after the hot start as runners got on in the next two innings, but were stranded or thrown out on the bases. Kentucky went down in order in the sixth and seventh innings of play.

In their final at-bats of the game, the offense put together a rally as back-to-back one-out singles put runners on the corners. However, it fizzled out as Hindle popped up a bunt that was snagged on a diving catch by the pitcher. Then, Tharnish was thrown out trying to steal home on a trick play attempt.

Overall, the offense went 6-27 (.222) at the plate and 3-8 (.375) with runners in scoring position in the series finale. They drew two walks and were hit by two pitches in addition to having six hits.

“We only got the leadoff guy on twice today,” Mingione said about the mid-game stumble. “We hit some balls hard again. We had double-digit hard hits that didn't necessarily all result in hits. Baseball can be so cruel sometimes."

Ira Austin IV bounces back

New Orleans transfer righty Ira Austin IV had big expectations coming into the 2026 season as he was named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Preseason Watch List, but he's not seen a ton of action. 

He had tossed just 0.2 innings prior to the series finale and that came in the series finale against UNC Greensboro, where he gave up three runs on a hit and two walks.

The senior got into the game in the seventh to relieve Harris and tossed a nine-pitch, three-up, three-down inning. 

“Got guys to take some uncomfortable swings, and we need him, and his role is going to keep increasing," Mingione said. Like, we need to get him going. So that was good, and he'll get more opportunities next week.”

Sophomore Leighton Harris tossed a scoreless eighth inning before Burkley Bounds came in and earned his first save at Kentucky. Bounds lowered his season ERA to 1.17 in the win.

Kentucky will have five games next week, beginning on Tuesday in Richmond against EKU. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.