Kentucky’s bid for its second regular season Southeastern Conference championship came up just short, as the No. 6 Wildcats fell 6-4 to No. 5 Florida at McKethan Stadium in the regular season finale.
The Cats finished the regular season with 38 wins, the most since the 2012 team won a school-record 45. Their 19-11 mark in league play represents the second-most SEC wins in school history, one short of the 20 the 2006 club had when it won the conference.
UK earned the No. 3 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. and will open play at 10:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 24 in the double elimination portion of the bracket.
The Cats got off to a hot start on Saturday, scoring a run on back-to-back doubles in the first inning and tacking on another in the third. But Florida managed to wriggle out of several jams early in the game and escaped a pair of bases loaded situations in the middle innings while building a 6-2 lead on the strength of Nelson Maldonado’s opposite field home run tucked just inside the right field pole.
Marcus Carson’s two-run homer to right field in the eighth inning drew the Cats within two but a pair of line drives nestled right into the gloves of the third baseman and second baseman to end the rally.
SCORING
Top 1st – White doubles to RF, scores on Luke Becker’s two-out double to LCF. UK 1, Florida 0.
Top 3rd – White doubles to RF with two outs, scores on Zach Reks’ line single to RCF. UK 2, Florida 0.
Bottom 4th – Dalton Guthrie singled and JJ Schwarz doubled. Nelson Maldonado homered top opposite field. Florida 3, UK 2.
Bottom 5th – Ryan Larson singled to lead off the inning and stole second. Schwarz walked. Maldonado doubled into the LF corner, scoring Larson. Austin Langworthy grounded out, scoring Schwarz. Florida 5, UK 2.
Bottom 6th – Mark Kolozsvary walks and steals second. Blake Reese hits a soft single to score Kolozsvary with two out. Florida 6, UK 2.
Top 8th – Troy Squires walked. Marcus Carson homered to RF, scoring Squires. Florida 6, UK 4.
NOTES
· Kentucky’s 38 wins on the season are the most since the 2012 team won a school-record 45. It’s also the sixth most in school history.
· UK’s 19 SEC wins are the second most in school history, just one shy of the 2006 team’s 20 victories in league play.
· The Cats are 17-12 vs. ranked foes this year.
· UK is 4-4 vs. Top 10 opponents.
· Kentucky has gone 75 games without being shutout, the seventh-longest such streak in school history.
· Junior 1B Evan White went 3-for-4 with two doubles, two runs and a hit by pitch.
o White now has 221 career hits, ninth on UK’s all-time list.
o White has a hit in 29 of his last 33 games.
o He extended his reached base safely streak to 22 of last 23 games.
o He has multiple hits in seven of his last 10 games.
o He has 25 multi-hit games this season and 69 in his career.
· Sophomore OF Tristan Pompey extended his reached base safely streak to 27 straight games.
· Senior OF Zach Reks went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
o Reks has a hit in 11 of his last 12 games.
o Reks now has 24 multi-hit games this season and 35 for his career.
o Reks has multiple hits in seven of last eight games.
o Reks has reached base safely in 25 of last 26 games.
· Sophomore C/DH Kole Cottam went 2-for-4.
o Cottam now has 17 multi-hit games this season and 23 in his career.
o Cottam was 7-for-13 with three runs and four RBI in the series.
ON DECK
Kentucky travels to Hoover for the SEC Tournament and will play on Wed., May 24 at 10:30 a.m. ET against an opponent to be determined. Follow along with the Cats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
‑ GO CATS –
For more information contact:
Matt May