Kentucky Baseball - the Week Ahead (April 24-30)

Kentucky stands at a robust 30-9 (SEC 11-7) for the season, and we are college baseball's #2 RPI team, a record that all of us would be happy with if we had been offered that record at the beginning of the season at this juncture. Nonetheless, we have wobbled recently, lost our last two SEC Series, including one at home against an unranked opponent, our pitching staff no longer can find the plate and our hitting has been silenced at opportune moments. Is this a blip, mini-slump, or the team reverting back to the mean and what is expected? I think this week will tell us a lot.

We host Louisville on Tuesday, and if we are struggling, so are they. I had hoped to get an RPI boost, particularly with a win, but the Cardinals are only #32 in the RPI rankings. They are sub-.500 in the ACC, and were swept this past weekend by Duke. Nonetheless, they are a traditional baseball powerhouse, have a lot of talent, and they are well coached and I suspect that we will have our hands full Tuesday night. I'm hoping that (our) Dan can pull us through Tuesday with his magic.

After the Louisville contest, we will travel to Nashville this weekend to play Vanderbilt. Many expected Vanderbilt to compete for the national championship this year, and they still do, but they were swept this past weekend by Tennessee, so the Cats could not be getting Vanderbilt at a worse time.

Offer me 2 wins this weekend, no matter how we get them, and I take it. Only 1 win will be a disappointment, but possibly not a disaster. Going winless this week is a possibility, and it would be a disaster, because the road only gets more difficult.

Taking a peek ahead after the Vanderbilt series, we will host #1 RPI South Carolina (34-6), followed by traveling to Knoxville to take on Tennessee, who just swept Vanderbilt. We will finish the season by hosting Florida, who is been in the top 5-10 all season.

We are currently 11-7 in the SEC. I would like to see us at least split all of the remaining games, and finish with a record of 17-13, which should guarantee us a hosting position in the NCAA Tournament. We can probably do a little less than that and still host, but not much.

For us to get into the conversation of a National Seed, I think we need to do better than that. In any event, this week begins the march to postseason that should really tell us a lot.