Tiger walks, Kentucky ace headline Wildcat game one UK win

By Hunt Palmer

THE STORY

That’s Kentucky’s game.

The Wildcats don’t hit for power, strike hitters out or overwhelm teams with talent. They will make the opponent win a game. Or lose one.

LSU self-emulated, and Kentucky watched to win 7-4 on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.

It started with a first inning where Casan Evens walked the leadoff man on four pitches that weren’t near the zone. He hit the two-hole hitter and uncorked a wild pitch to plate the game’s first run after a double play ball from Wildcat star Tyler Bell.

Kentucky just watched. LSU gifted a run.

In the second, Evans sprayed his fastball to the tune of three walks. A pair of singles and a sac fly made it 4-0 without an extra base hit from the Wildcats.

Those Wildcats added three more in the seventh without a solid base hit. The leadoff man chopped an infield hit in no man’s land down the third base line. Ethan Plog walked the second hitter to give the Wildcats first and second with no one out for the fourth time in seven innings. Plog got a strikeout, and with one out Ethan Hindle flied deep to center. Derek Curiel got to the wall and leapt in time. It hit his glove short of the wall and fell to the track for a double. It’s a play Curiel makes way more often than he doesn’t, and it scored a run leaving two in scoring position with one out. That directly contributed to three Wildcat runs, the margin of the game.

Only two of Kentucky’s seven runs scored on a hit, and that one should have been caught.

An RBI fielder’s choice on a play Trent Caraway shouldn’t have thrown home and a sac fly made it 7-2 and more or less put the issue to bed as LSU’s offense mounted little resistance against Wildcat ace Jaxon Jelkin.

The lone Tiger threat came in the third when LSU loaded the bases on an infield hit and two free bases. Curiel’s two-run single made it 4-2, but Zach Yorke grounded into a double play with runners on the corners and one out to extinguish the threat.

Jelkin retired eleven in a row from the end of the third through the sixth. It was his best outing in three SEC tries.

LSU’s offense is limited at this point. That’s hard to argue against, and it’s probably kind. The Tigers have scored nine runs in the last three SEC games.

This hole is getting deeper.

THE SCORECARD

Casan Evans: 6 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 6 BB, 3 K, 100 pitches, 53 strikes

Jaxon Jelkin: 8 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 114 pitches, 80 strikes.

Kentucky got the leadoff man on five times in nine innings. He scored three times.

Kentucky was just 3-for-14 (.214) with runners on and 2-for-11 (.182) with runners in scoring position.

Kentucky had one extra base hit.

The Cats were a perfect 5-for-5 scoring runners for third with less than two outs. LSU was 2-for-4.

Seth Dardar: 3-for-5, 3 2B (one was lost in wind/sun)

Neither team made an error.

WHAT’S NEXT

LSU needs to win on Saturday. William Schmidt will oppose Nate Harris which gives the Tigers an edge on the mound.

First pitch is at 2:00.