No. 6 Kentucky has a series looming with Florida later this week where a Southeastern Conference championship is on the line, but it must first take care of business in the final regular season non-conference game Tuesday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium. The Northern Kentucky Norse come to town and if there was any cause for concern about the Wildcats possibly looking ahead to the Gators, the veteran Cats need look no further than a year ago when the Norse came to Lexington and scored their first ever win over UK, dealing a harsh blow to the Cats’ postseason hopes in the process.
The Cats enter this week ranked No. 7 in the NCAA’s RPI ratings as jockeying for postseason position and potential hosting of NCAA Tournament Regional and Super Regional rounds reaches full tilt. UK sits one game back of Florida for the SEC title.
UK junior infielder Riley Mahan is the reigning SEC Player of the Week, the third time he has earned the award this season, joining only Mississippi State’s Brent Rooker as three-time winners. Mahan had a blistering week at the plate, which somewhat obscured the fact that Cats hit .408 as a team and scored 35 runs in its four games last week against Indiana and Tennessee.
Kentucky owns a 25-5 record at Cliff Hagan Stadium this season, just the fifth time in program history the Cats have won 25 at The Cliff. UK also already owns their most wins in a season (36) since the 2014 campaign (37) and second-most SEC wins in school history (18).
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
UK – Brad Schaenzer (Jr., LHP) – 18 games, 2 starts; 4-0, 3.60 ERA, 35.0 IP, 26 H, 14 ER, 9 BB, 32 K
NKU – Trey Ganns (Jr., LHP) – 13 games, 12 starts; 3-6, 7.42 ERA, 57.0 IP, 74 H, 47 ER, 21 BB, 47 K
GAME DETAILS
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 16 (6:30 p.m.)
Location (Facility): Lexington, Ky. (Cliff Hagan Stadium)
Series History: UK leads 11-1 (9-1 in Lexington)
Radio: 630 AM-WLAP (Neil Price); ukathletics.com
TV/Online: SECN+ (Dick Gabriel and Doug Flynn)
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