Kentucky baseball had a great season, and earned the number two overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. They also get to host a regional site in Lexington. The games began on Friday, and Kentucky got a win over Western Michigan, but it wasn’t easy.
The Wildcats are, of course, the top seed in Lexington, and they got to open things up with the fourth seed of the region in Western Michigan. The winner would play the winner of the second game of the regional.
Related: Multiple Wildcats named to All-SEC teams
Kentucky got off to a great start on Friday. A James McCoy homerun in the second inning got them out to a 3-run lead, then the Cats added four more in the third. It would be 8 – 0 after four.
In the fifth, Kentucky’s pitching began to falter. The Broncos scored five runs in that inning and Dominic Niman was pulled. Fortunately, the Wildcats answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth, because Western Michigan scored three more in the sixth. That would be all, though, and Kentucky would hold on for a 10 – 8 final.
McCoy had two hits and three RBIs for the Wildcats while Mitchell Daly drove in two. Kentucky’s pitching in the middle innings struggled badly, but the bullpen threw three scoreless to close the game out.