Takeaways from Kentucky's 11-9 scrimmage win at Indiana
Here's what stood out after 12 innings of baseball at Indiana on Friday night.
Kentucky and Indiana played 12 innings at Bart Kaufman Field in Bloomington on Friday night. The Hoosiers led 6-5 after nine innings, but Kentucky scored five runs in the 10th inning and added another in the 12th to make it 11-7, then held on to an 11-9 win after Indiana added two runs in the bottom of the frame and stranded the bases loaded to finish off the victory.
This scrimmage was a couple of innings shorter than the previous two Kentucky played, but it was much the same in terms of many different players getting reps at various positions. The playing conditions were not favorable throughout much of the night as the wind and rain created a nasty environment, but the scrimmage was never delayed and every inning was completed. Kentucky had some rough defense at times, some of which could be attributed to the difficult conditions, but not all of the miscues were weather-related.
“We have a lot of work to do," Kentucky coach Nick Mingione told Bat Cats Central. "I do feel confident about that. I thought our pitchers had to overcome a lot today. A lot of non-made plays, couple errors. Obviously, for us to be the best defensive team we want to be, we have to make a lot of those plays. Yeah, were the conditions a factor? But it doesn't matter. For us to be an elite team, we have to make more defensive plays.
"But I give our pitchers a lot of credit. They had to overcome a lot of non-made plays and a couple errors that really could have, and did, change the game. So overall, I appreciated our team's fight. I thought to stand out here in the in the cold and the literally the rain flying right in our dugout in our face, that was not easy to do. But I thought their competitive spirit and their fight to come out after 12 innings and to win 11-9 and get out of a bunch of jams, I thought that was good."
Derek Terry
Here are some takeaways from Friday night's exhibition.
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