One other weekend. One other sweep for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Nick Mingione’s staff disposed of visiting Alabama with relative ease, beating the Crimson Tide by scores of 6-2, 7-0 and 10-1 to enhance to a stunning 11-1 within the SEC. The Wildcats have additionally swept Georgia at residence and Ole Miss on the highway and took two of three at Missouri.
All 4 of Kentucky’s opponents are underneath .500 within the convention, however there was nothing fluky about this staff’s quick begin. The Wildcats’ run differential by way of 12 SEC video games is plus-71, and in league video games, Kentucky’s offense ranks second in batting common (.316), slugging (.550) and runs scored (114) and its pitching workers leads the league in batting common towards (.188) and is second in ERA (3.09).
A yr in the past, the Wildcats raced out to a 9-1 begin within the league en path to a 16-14 end.
Per Ben Beaty of the SEC, UK is the primary staff to start out 9-1 in SEC play in again to again seasons in 32 years. https://t.co/dR5yfqXpPN
— Joe Healy (@JoeHealyD1) April 6, 2024
Across the horn
Arkansas continued its dominance on the mound, holding Ole Miss to 9 runs in a weekend sweep over the Rebels in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks, 11-1 within the SEC and ranked No. 1 within the nation, have a league-low 2.83 ERA in convention video games and haven’t allowed greater than 5 runs in any of their SEC wins.
All-America left-hander Hagen Smith is 4-0 in 4 SEC begins with a 1.50 ERA, .169 batting common towards and 43 strikeouts and 7 walks in 24 innings.
We had some fireworks late Saturday evening in Starkville. No punches had been thrown, however the benches (type of) cleared after Mississippi State catcher Johnny Lengthy was a bit too aggressive after tagging out Dillon Carter for the third out within the prime of the eighth inning.
Play resumed after a 40-minute evaluate (sure, 40 minutes!) that resulted in 11 ejections, and Georgia evened the collection with a 3-2 win due to a Clayton Chadwick residence run within the prime of the ninth.
There was hypothesis that every one 11 gamers can be suspended for Sunday’s sport, however after additional evaluate, the league restricted the suspensions to 5 — three from Georgia (Fernando Gonzalez, Henry Hunter and Daniel Padysak) and two from Mississippi State (Logan Kohler and Lengthy). As a result of two of the three Georgia gamers are catchers, the Bulldogs had been allowed to stagger the suspensions. Hunter served his suspension on Sunday and Gonzales will serve his for Tuesday’s sport towards Kennesaw State.
ICYMI: Final evening a play on the plate between Georgia and Mississippi State resulted in gamers coming into the sphere of play which triggered a 40-minute evaluate and 11 total ejections.
These 11 gamers haven’t all been named however are anticipated to overlook Sunday’s rubber sport as properly. pic.twitter.com/fr6SgoNb06
— SEC Baseball (@SECbaseball) April 7, 2024
Mississippi State received the collection with a wild 9-8 win on Sunday afternoon.
Georgia slugger Charlie Condon was restricted to solely three hits in 12 at-bats — although one in every of his hits was his nation-leading twentieth residence run — and is now hitting solely .458.
West Virginia All-American JJ Wetherholt was again in motion over the weekend after lacking 24 video games with a hamstring damage. Serving because the Mountaineers’ designated hitter, Wetherholt went a mixed 5 for 13 as WVU swept three video games from Kansas.
The Mountaineers are tied with Oklahoma atop the Large 12 standings with an 8-4 file in league play.
What’s going on in Fort Price? TCU, which crashed the highest 5 when it opened the season with 13 consecutive wins, received swept at Cincinnati over the weekend to drop to 20-11 total and a surprising 5-10 within the Large 12.
After dropping 4-2 on Friday and 6-2 on Saturday, the Frogs hardly put up a struggle on Sunday, getting run-ruled in a disheartening 13-2 loss in seven innings. TCU has scored six runs or fewer in 13 of its 15 convention video games.
It’s protected to say that Nick Kurtz’s droop is over. Wake Forest’s All-America first baseman hit three residence runs within the Demon Deacons’ 10-4 win at Virginia Tech on Sunday and now has eight homers up to now 5 video games.
Kurtz received off to a sluggish begin to his junior season and missed six video games with a shoulder damage however now appears just like the hitter who’s projected to be picked within the prime of the primary spherical of the 2024 MLB Draft. He’s hitting .298 with 11 residence runs and an OPS of 1.238.
It was a giant bounce-back weekend for Wake Forest, which was swept at residence final weekend by North Carolina. The Deacs swept Virginia Tech — which had been 10-2 within the ACC — and at the moment are 7-8 in league play with a visit to Boston School looming subsequent weekend.
Hey @ACCBaseball,
It is us once more. Please discover connected our nomination for Participant of the Week.
Peace and blessings, Wake Baseball https://t.co/4q38LHRLKK pic.twitter.com/FPb677DvpO
— Wake Forest Baseball (@WakeBaseball) April 7, 2024
It was one other productive weekend for Oregon State All-American Travis Bazzana. The junior second baseman went 5 for 12 with 5 runs scored and three RBIs because the Beavers swept Arizona State in Corvallis.
In Friday’s 13-8 win, Bazzana hits his sixth leadoff residence run of the season and his seventeenth total. It was his thirty fourth profession residence run, tying him with Joe Gerber and Andy Jarvis for first all-time at Oregon State.
Bazzana is second nationally in batting common (.472), slugging (1.056) and OPS (1.670).
One week after scoring a complete of two runs and gathering solely 10 hits in a weekend sweep at Vanderbilt, Missouri recorded its first-ever sweep over the Florida Gators. The Tigers entered the weekend with a 1-8 file within the SEC due largely to an offense that was hitting an anemic .144 in league video games. They received low-scoring video games on Friday (2-1 in 11 innings) and Saturday (4-3) earlier than erupting for 14 hits in Sunday’s thrilling 11-10 victory through which Missouri blew an early 7-1 lead after which rallied for 3 runs within the backside the ninth to stroll off the Gators on Jeric Curtis’ two-out single to middle area.
Florida’s two-way star Jac Caglianone went 2 for 4 with a two-run residence run on Sunday however had his worst efficiency of the season on the mound — permitting six earned runs in just one ⅓ innings. The Gators are 17-14 and 6-6 within the SEC.
Surging Louisiana, winner of 15 in a row, has opened up a three-game lead within the extremely aggressive Solar Belt. The Ragin’ Cajuns, who swept ULM over the weekend, are 11-1 within the league, with each Southern Miss and Georgia Southern sitting at 8-4.
Louisiana, which entered the D1 Baseball prime 25 this week at No. 19, and Coastal Carolina (No. 20) are the one two Solar Belt groups ranked. Coastal hosts the Ragin’ Cajuns in two weeks.
Freshman Christian Lim has been a vivid spot in what has in any other case been a season to overlook for Stanford.
Lim, a freshman from Nashville, is 3-2 with a 2.89 ERA and 54 strikeouts and 12 walks in 43 ⅔ innings. In Saturday’s 3-1 win over Washington State, Lim allowed solely two hits and one earned run in a season-high eight innings.
Stanford is 13-16 total and 6-6 within the Pac-12.
Iowa and Indiana, thought of by most to be the 2 finest groups within the Large Ten heading into the season, have just about performed their manner out of the at-large dialogue for a Regional bid. Iowa is 14-13 total and 5-4 within the league after dropping two out of three at Purdue over the weekend. Indiana, in the meantime, is 18-15 and 3-3 following a collection win at Maryland.
Nebraska, at 5-1, is proportion factors forward of Illinois (7-2) atop the league standings. The Cornhuskers, with an RPI of 17, determine to be the league’s finest wager to obtain an at-large bid ought to they not win the Large Ten Event — although that RPI figures to drop fairly a bit as they get deeper into league play.
And eventually
• LSU is 3-9 within the SEC after dropping two of three to Vanderbilt in Baton Rouge. The Tigers have been run-ruled 3 times in league video games, every within the remaining sport of the collection.
• There are two groups nationally with an ideal league file with at the least six convention video games performed — Bowling Inexperienced (12-0 within the MAC) and Rider (9-0 within the MAAC).
• One yr after its shock run to the School World Collection — which started as a No. 4 seed within the Stillwater Regional — Oral Roberts is preventing to remain out of final place within the six-team Summit League. The Golden Eagles are 12-17-1 total and 4-7-1 within the league.
• Virginia freshman Henry Ford blasted three residence runs in Thursday’s 14-11 win over North Carolina in Charlottesville. Ford, a Charlottesville native who performed highschool baseball on the Baylor Faculty in Chattanooga, Tenn., is hitting .377 with 10 residence runs and 43 RBIs.
• Louisville swept a three-game set from NC State to enhance to 20-11 total and 6-6 within the ACC. With an RPI of 90, the Cardinals might want to stack some extra collection wins earlier than they are often thought of a severe at-large candidate.
• Western Kentucky took two of three from then-No. 8 Dallas Baptist in Bowling Inexperienced. The Hilltoppers held DBU to a complete of seven runs within the three video games.
• Tennessee bounced again from a loss to Auburn on Friday evening to bludgeon the Tigers with 31 runs (due to 12 residence runs) within the subsequent two video games. On Saturday, junior Blake Burke moved into first place on the Vols’ all-time residence run record with the forty first bomb in his three-year profession.
• Duke stayed inside putting distance of first place within the ACC Coastal by sweeping Miami with three one-run wins, together with two walk-offs. The Blue Devils are 9-6 in league play, tied for third with Virginia and two video games behind the Tar Heels. Virginia Tech is in second at 10-5.
• East Carolina took two of three at FAU in an vital collection within the American Athletic Convention. The Pirates are 6-3 within the league, one sport behind UTSA. FAU is 5-4.
• UC Irvine maintained its spot atop the Large West standings by successful a collection over UCSB. The Anteaters are 24-4 total and 10-2 within the Large West.
(Picture courtesy of Kentucky Athletics)
