The UK baseball team powered past Miami (OH) 13-7 on Tuesday night.
Kentucky improved to 18-7 on the season. The Wildcats will return to SEC action this weekend with a road trip to Alabama.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Daniel Harper turned in the best pitching performance of his young career and the offense continued to pile up runs as No. 6 Kentucky knocked off Miami (Ohio), 13-7, before a crowd on 3,032 on a windy Tuesday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
Harper, a freshman right-hander from Fairway, Kansas, pitched a career-high 6.0 innings in his sixth collegiate start, shutting out the RedHawks by pounding the lower quadrants of the strike zone. He retired the first 11 batters he faced on his way to not allowing a run on just three hits with six strikeouts on the night. He now owns a 23-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio for the season as the Wildcats’ mid-week starter.
The Cats (18-7) backed Harper’s effort with 10 runs before he left the game, including a five-run sixth inning where they did had just one hit and did not hit the ball out of the infield. It was just the second time in 25 games the Cats did not hit a home run but they still managed to score in five different innings, including three where at least three runs crossed the plate.
Despite allowing a seven-run seventh inning to Miami (13-8), mostly fueled by walks and wild pitches, redshirt freshman righty Carson Coleman showed his moxie by entering the dicey situation and getting out of the jam on his way to striking out four in 1.2 scoreless innings.
Offensively, a pair of junior outfielders each turned in career nights. Ryan Johnson went 4-for-5 with two runs, two RBI and a double, setting a new career-high for hits and Ben Aklinski went 3-for-3 with four runs, an RBI, two walks, a double and a steal, setting a career-high for runs scored.
NOTES
· The offense has …
o Hit a home run in 23 of 25 games this season.
o Racked up 114 extra-base hits
o Averaged 9.84 runs per game in 19 non-conference games this season.
· Several Cats extended impressive reached base safely streaks…
o Junior OF Tristan Pompey has reached in 55 of the last 57 games.
o Senior INF Luke Becker has reached in all 25 games.
o Senior C/1B Troy Squires has reached in 24 of 25 games this season.
o Junior OF Ben Aklinski has reached in 19 of the last 20 games.
o Sophomore DH T.J. Collett has reached in 22 of the past 24 games.
· Freshman RHP Daniel Harper went 6.0 innings, giving up just three hits, walking one and striking out six.
o The outing was the longest of his career.
o He retired the first 11 hitters of the game.
o Went 4.1 innings before allowing a hit.
o Now owns a 23-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio for the season.
· Junior OF Tristan Pompey went 2-for-4 with two runs, an RBI, a double, a walk and steal.
o He now has 10 doubles in 2018 and 36 for his career.
o Pompey now has seven multi-hit games this season and 41 in his career.
· Junior OF Ben Aklinski went 3-for-3 with four runs, an RBI, a double, a steal and two walks.
o The four runs scored are a new career-high.
o Aklinski has 11 multi-hit games at UK.
· Junior OF Ryan Johnson went 4-for-5 with two runs, two RBI and a double.
o The four hits are a new career-high.
o He now has seven multi-hit games at UK.
o He has four multi-RBI games at UK.
o He has nine doubles on the season.
ON DECK
The Cats resume SEC play this weekend with a trip to Alabama. Friday night’s game will start at 7 p.m. ET, Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. All three games will be streamed on SECN+ and Darren Headrick will have the radio call on 630 AM WLAP.
Follow along with the Cats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
