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  • Kentucky Baseball, April 10-16 Week Ahead

    by
    Darrell KSR
    Published on 04-10-2023 03:18 PM
    1 Comment Comments
    Despite losing a doubleheader in Athens yesterday, I do not expect Kentucky to drop in the rankings. It will be interesting to see when they come out a little later today.

    College Baseball RPI is important and we remain #1 today. By my count, that is the third consecutive week we began as #1 in the country. Our overall strength of schedule is #5 and will likely improve, so it will not take a great record the rest of the season to remain among the very top teams. Still way too early to talk about NCAA Tournament, and we're about to be tested this week to see just how good we can be.

    First, we travel to cross-state rival Louisville, who at 24-7 just came off a conference sweep. They are a traditional baseball powerhouse, and just finished sweeping RPI Top #10 ACC foe Boston College this past weekend. We have traditionally treated midweek games as experiments this season, trotting out our usual midweek starter, but then taking him out after about 3 innings, replacing him with one picture after another for one inning stints. I suspect that will result in a loss if we do the same thing this week.

    We then traveled to Baton Rouge to face the #1 team in the polls, LSU. They also have a sporty #4 RPI ranking. This week will be a great test for Kentucky. If someone offered me 2-2, I take it and run with it. 1-3 is not a disaster, although I would prefer to win at least one game in Baton Rouge.

    Will post the poll rankings in this thread later today.
    Comments 12 Comments
    1. catmanjack's Avatar
      catmanjack - 04-10-2023, 08:16 PM
      Goal after the start is to be a top seed and host.
    1. Darrell KSR's Avatar
      Darrell KSR - 04-12-2023, 12:45 PM
      With the cancellation (postponement?) of the game at Louisville this week, will that help or hurt Kentucky going into Baton Rouge tomorrow through Saturday?

      LSU played a tuneup game in New Orleans and defeated Tulane, 11-5 yesterday.

      Man, LSU has had some games this year. Kentucky better have their big boy pants on. Some of the games that LSU has won this year have been by huge scores:

      10-0, 18-4, 16-4, 12-2, 26-4, 13-0, 11-0, 11-1, 12-0, 13-1, 16-0, 9-0, 12-7, 12-2, 14-5, 17-5, 12-2.

      LSU leads the league in batting average at .333 (Kentucky is fifth at .299)

      Kentucky has an advantage in pitching so far this season, but the ERA has continually moved up and is now at 3.29, fourth in the league. LSU is sixth in the league at 3.98.

      6 teams in the SEC have an ERA above 5. 8 teams in the SEC have an ERA above 4.5.

      Not only does LSU lead the conference in batting average, but they are also second in slugging percentage (actually tied statistically with Florida for first place – Kentucky is 13th), first in on-base percentage (Kentucky is third), first in runs scored, first in RBIs (Kentucky is 12th), and 4th in home runs with 61. Kentucky is 14th in the league with 22 home runs, and appears destined to finish dead last in that category, as 13th place is 36.

      To give you an idea of the kind of baseball Kentucky plays, Kentucky is #1 in the league in sacrifice bunts – with 30. Second-place has 12. Kentucky leads the conference and stolen bases with 57. LSU is last with 13.
    1. catmanjack's Avatar
      catmanjack - 04-12-2023, 01:32 PM
      This series has me on the verge of worrying.
      Pitching has been good, I hope this series does not set UK’s pitching staff back.
    1. Darrell KSR's Avatar
      Darrell KSR - 04-12-2023, 01:51 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by catmanjack View Post
      This series has me on the verge of worrying.
      Pitching has been good, I hope this series does not set UK’s pitching staff back.
      I have the same concern. It would really help us if we get some sort of stellar starting pitching Thursday night and/or Friday night.
    1. dan_bgblue's Avatar
      dan_bgblue - 04-12-2023, 05:12 PM
      They will have 20 fresh arms to begin the series. Some of them have little if any experience but they are on the roster. Do not try and save anything for tomorrow when they start the series. Throw the kitchen sink at them to win the first game and worry about tomorrow tomorrow.
    1. Darrell KSR's Avatar
      Darrell KSR - 04-12-2023, 08:53 PM
      Gotta win 1. Two wins would be glorious.


      Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
    1. Darrell KSR's Avatar
      Darrell KSR - 04-12-2023, 10:36 PM
      Interesting.

      This is tonight's UK press release. Think they inadvertently omitted Zack Lee's name from the 3rd game, and have taken Tyler Bosma out of the Game 2 slot, replacing him with Logan Martin.

      Game 1 is TBD. Darren Williams? Bosma?

      Something different like Hagenow or Mason Moore?

      Thursday, April 13 at #1 LSU

      7 p.m. ET/6 CT; Baton Rouge, La. (Alex Box Stadium)

      TV: SEC Network; Radio: UK Sports Network, 630 AM WLAP (locally)

      Records: UK (27-5, 9-3); LSU (27-5, 7-4)

      UK – TBD; LSU – RHP Paul Skenes (5-1, 1.14)


      Friday, April 14 at #1 LSU

      7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 CT; Baton Rouge, La. (Alex Box Stadium)

      TV: SECN+; Radio: UK Sports Network, 630 AM WLAP (locally)

      Records: UK (27-5, 9-3); LSU (27-5, 7-4)

      UK – RHP Logan Martin (1-1, 3.32); LSU – RHP Ty Floyd (5-0, 3.67)


      Saturday, April 15 at #1 LSU

      2 p.m. ET/1 CT; Baton Rouge, La. (Alex Box Stadium)

      TV: SEC Network; Radio: UK Sports Network, 630 AM WLAP (locally)

      Records: UK (27-5, 9-3); LSU (27-5, 7-4)

      UK – LHP (4-2, 4.33); LSU – RHP Christian Little (2-1
    1. Darrell KSR's Avatar
      Darrell KSR - 04-12-2023, 11:15 PM
      Looks like Bosma has been moved to Game 3, not Zack Lee.

      Mixing it up after losing the series to UGA last weekend.
    1. dan_bgblue's Avatar
      dan_bgblue - 04-13-2023, 07:50 AM
      Are they going to try and get 2 innings per game out of Martin for the rest of the season?
    1. Darrell KSR's Avatar
      Darrell KSR - 04-13-2023, 08:43 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by dan_bgblue View Post
      Are they going to try and get 2 innings per game out of Martin for the rest of the season?
      I'm really lost on what is going on there.
    1. blueboss's Avatar
      blueboss - 04-13-2023, 10:33 AM
      https://www.on3.com/teams/kentucky-w...ibextid=Zxz2cZ

      LSU series stuff.


      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1. dan_bgblue's Avatar
      dan_bgblue - 04-13-2023, 12:24 PM
      Thanks. I do wish the reporter would have either found out and reported what is up with "2 inning" Martin, or at least said that he had asked but Coach said it was a personal health matter and it was improving and that was all he would say.

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