Rev's Rundown: March 26
Contributing writer Adam Revelette offers his thoughts from the week and previews the upcoming series against LSU.
Contributing writer Adam Revelette offers his thoughts from the week and previews upcoming opponents.
Ole Missed opportunity
Unfortunately for the Cats, Ole Miss ace Hunter Elliott found his stride last Thursday, pitching into the seventh inning for the first time this season and just the fourth time in his career and tying a season-low in walks (2). UK competed in the box and only punched out six times against the All-American, who was averaging nearly 14 K/9 coming into the contest. But the Cats could only muster four singles off Elliot and were blanked by reliever Taylor Rabe, who did walk a batter and hit a pair, but otherwise shut down the Cats for his second save of the year. This was a classic ‘tip the cap’ game; when some of these frontline SEC starters have their ‘A stuff,’ they are very hard to beat.
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Along those same lines, the Cats turned around and spun their own gem on Friday in the second game of the series. Ace Jaxon Jelkin and emerging back-end option Nile Adcock combined to allow four hits and a single run (solo shot from UK transfer Austin Fawley) in the victory. Adcock, Burkley Bounds and Jack Bennett seem to have emerged as three options that pitching coach Dan Roszel can use to finish games.
In Saturday's getaway game, Nate Harris only lasted three frames and Bounds, Bennett and Connor Mattison combined for an uncharacteristic 4.1 innings. UK pitchers walked eight and hit a batter and the infield defense made three errors in a sloppy game overall (Ole Miss pitching issued seven free passes and threw away a pickoff-turned rundown, allowing Ryan Schwartz to advance to second with one out in the seventh inning of a two-run game, but he was subsequently picked off before the next ball was put in play).
Road series are hard to win because of the hostile and unfamiliar environments, fatigue from travel, and any number of other things that can go wrong with bus times, team meals, hotel issues, etc. No excuses to be made here, as there is certainly some low-hanging fruit that Nick Mingione can use as teaching points for his team moving forward.
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Back on track
UK won another trudge of a ballgame on Tuesday, a seven-inning, 14-4 mercy rule victory that still took over three hours to play. Both the Cats and visitor Murray State made pitching changes in the first inning, but UK’s ‘Johnny Wholestaff’ approach worked much better than the Racers’, who allowed 11 walks and hit four batters. Hudson Brown went 2-for-2 with 4 RBI and a pair of walks, and has emerged as a true weapon offensively. He has saved his best for conference play, now owning a seven-game hitting streak that began with the Alabama series and continued last weekend during his homecoming in Mississippi (the redshirt sophomore is an Olive Branch native). Brown's OPS is in 'one-dotter' territory at 1.063, he's earned more free passes (18 BB, 5 HBP) than strikeouts (15) and is second on the team in extra base hits. I've really enjoyed watching how well he can change his approach from fighting his way on when necessary, to driving runners in when duty calls.
Good time to play the Tigers?
Another tough test looms in Baton Rouge as UK takes on LSU this weekend. The defending national champs, however, are just 6-9 in their last 15 games and unranked in major polls. LSU is 11th in the league in hitting, 14th in defense and 15th in pitching, with a team ERA of 4.69. Starters William Schmidt and Cooper Moore have been solid and the Tigers have seven pitchers who have recorded saves this year, but while that may convey depth on some level, there’s a clear revolving door when it comes to closing games.
On the offensive side, Jake Brown and Derek Curiel are standout talents and could both be first-rounders come July, but they're the only two Tigers hitting above .300. And while the Box is one of college baseball’s premier venues, LSU fans are pretty well-known for getting on their own team if they’re not playing to championship standards. Here’s hoping that tension continues in the bayou for another weekend.
Back-to-back road trips at Ole Miss and LSU look scary on paper, but if UK can grind out a series win and come out of it at 3-3 (with a would-be 6-3 record in the SEC) they would be in a great spot with Mizzou coming to town next weekend.
