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Observations from the first nine innings of Kentucky's exhibition against Xavier

What stood out about Kentucky's second exhibition?

Derek Terry
Derek Terry
– 6 min read
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Observations from the first nine innings of Kentucky's exhibition against Xavier
Hudson Brown had another strong exhibition on Sunday. Photo by Noah Morlock/UK Athletics.
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The first of two fall exhibitions at Kentucky Proud Park and the second of four overall for the Kentucky baseball team took place on Sunday. The Wildcats hosted Xavier, the 2026 Big East regular season co-champions, for 14 innings. Unlike last week's exhibition against Cincinnati, which was split into two seven-inning games, Kentucky and Xavier played a full nine innings before wrapping up with five additional innings. Kentucky won the first nine innings 13-8,

All stats from Sunday were unofficial. I don't have the full pitching stats, but here's what I had on the lineup:

  1. Jayce Tharnish CF – 0-1, BB, Sacrifice, BB, HBP 
  2. Hudson Brown 1B – 2-5, HBP, 2B, 3 RBI
  3. Ethan Hindle 2B – 2-4, HR, single 
  4. Kaden Powell DH – 0-1, BB, sac fly, HBP; PH Caeden Cloud 0-2, 2 Ks
  5. Lee Ellis SS – 1-2, HBP, K, BB, single
  6. Riley Jackson C – 1-3, HBP, 3-run home run; Carson May 1-1 home run
  7. Brody Chrisman RF – 1-4, 2B
  8. JP Peltier 3B – 1-3 single, RBI, BB; Owen Lee BB, delayed steal  
  9. Alex Kelsey LF 0-2, 2 HBP

A rundown of each of the first nine innings can be found at the link below.

Kentucky wins 13-8 over Xavier in first nine innings of exhibition
Kentucky is back in action on Sunday for its second exhibition of the fall.
Bat Cats CentralDerek Terry

I'll track down anything notable from the final five innings and write about it sometime this upcoming week. But for now, here's what stood out in the first nine innings of Kentucky's exhibition against Xavier.

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Offensive observations

  • First and foremost, this was a much better offensive performance than last week. I have no frame of reference for how good the pitchers Xavier used today were – the Musketeers don't even have an updated roster posted yet – but the quality of at-bats was better. There were far fewer strikeouts this week compared to last week against Cincinnati, and even some of the at-bats that didn't result in hits or baserunners were still better in the sense that the hitter worked the count and saw more pitches. It took a little bit for the offense to cash in on chances, but eight of the 13 runs were scored over the final three innings.