The Kentucky baseball season came to an end at the hands of West Virginia in the Clemson Regional last night.
In a familiar script, the Wildcats (31-26) blew two 5-run leads to eventually fall 13-12 to the Mountaineers.
Just hours after putting up 16 runs against No. 11 Clemson, the Wildcat offense continued to roll with 12 runs vs. the Mountaineers.
Unfortunately, the Cats couldn’t get the help they needed out of the bullpen. The collapse came when Kentucky led 12-7 and was just four outs from advancing. West Virginia scored six straight runs to get the win.
Here’s a recap from UK Athletics:
CLEMSON, S.C. – Kentucky’s season is over but, true to form, it fought until the very end.
The Wildcats eliminated top-seed and regional host Clemson 16-4 in Sunday’s afternoon game then had West Virginia on the ropes multiple times in the nightcap before the Mountaineers scored six runs with two outs in the eighth inning to complete their unlikely comeback for a 13-12 victory at Doug Kinsmore Stadium.
A season of gutting one-run, late-inning defeats ended in the same fashion but the conclusion didn’t define the season. UK (31-26) fought through a rash of injuries, a roster with 30 new players and one of the nation’s most difficult schedules to come within three victories of a return to Omaha.
But this group of Wildcats also helped the program to its third straight regional for the first time in history and saw multiple young players break onto the scene. Also, six Cats were named to the All-Clemson Regional Team: Hudson Brown, Cole Hage, Carson Hansen, Luke Lawrence, James McCoy and Ethan Walker.
NOTES
Kentucky is 31-26 on the season.
UK won 30 games for the fourth consecutive season.
UK Coach Nick Mingione is in his ninth season at the helm and now owns a 293-192 career record.
Mingione is the second-winningest coach in school history.
UK is 14-9 in the month of June under Coach Mingione.
Mingione now is 14-10 in the NCAA Tournament.
He is 11-4 in four NCAA Regionals.
Mingione now is 1-0 vs. Clemson.
Mingione now is 1-2 vs. West Virginia.
ON DECK
Kentucky’s 2025 season is complete.
Follow along with the Cats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
