No. 8 Kentucky (38-18, 19-11 SEC) finished in third place in the SEC regular season standings. With the finish inside the top four, the Wildcats automatically advanced to the double-elimination portion of the SEC Tournament, where they will meet the Gamecocks.
During the regular season, Kentucky
beat the South Carolina two out of three games in Columbia. Kentucky
won the Friday game 19-1, racking up 20 hits in the game, including a
pair of home runs from Luke Becker. Sean Hjelle pitched six innings
of shutout baseball, allowing just three hits and walking one while
striking out six.
On Saturday, South Carolina bounced
back with a 5-1 win behind the pitching of Adam Hill, who went five
innings, allowing only a Tyler Marshall home run in five innings of
work. After rapping out 20 hits on Friday, Kentucky had just two hits
on Saturday.
In Sunday's rubber game, Kentucky got a dominant relief appearance from Logan Salow, who pitched the final four and two-thirds innings to pick up the win in a 9-4 Kentucky victory. Salow had a career-high 10 strikeouts in the game while allowing no hits and just one walk. Evan White and Riley Mahan each homered for Kentucky in the game.
The Wildcats are coming off a 2-2 week, when the Wildcats beat Northern Kentucky and Florida before dropping the final two games of the SEC series in Gainesville.
Kentucky is led by SEC Coach of the Year Nick Mingione, SEC Pitcher of the Year Hjelle and All-SEC First Teamers Pompey and Salow. The Wildcats also had three players on the All-SEC Second Team. Second baseman Mahan, catcher Troy Squires and first baseman White were all named to that team. White also was named to the SEC All-Defensive Team for the third straight season.
White, the junior first baseman, leads Kentucky in hitting with a .385 batting average. White also has eight home runs and 22 doubles. Pompey is batting .369 with nine homers and 40 RBIs. And Mahan is batting .341 with a team-high 14 homers and a team-leading 56 RBIs.
Hjelle leads Kentucky with nine wins on the season (9-2), which includes a 3.17 ERA. The sophomore from White Bear Lake, Minnesota, is tied for the team lead in strikeouts with 81. Fellow sophomore Justin Lewis is 6-3 with a 3.50 ERA, while junior Zach Logue is 6-5 with a 5.03 ERA. Those three pitchers have made all of Kentucky's weekend starts this season.
Kentucky and South Carolina meet in the double-elimination portion of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday. The winner of Wednesday's game will play on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. CT, while the loser will play at 9:30 a.m. CT on Thursday.
