Bluegrassrivals

Cards blitz the Cats

OUCH!!!!

Well, it happens. That's the game of baseball.
Just got to put it behind them now and get ready for the next one.

Kentucky's 21-game winning streak against non-conference foes came to an end with a resounding thud Tuesday night.

Archrival Louisville knocked the Wildcats silly, outhitting the top-ranked team 17-4 in a 12-0 romp.

A Cliff Hagan Stadium season-high crowd of 3,563 — 563 over the listed capacity — turned out. Most fans dispersed as the Wildcats' chances plummeted along with the temperature.

"I'm going to take overnight to figure out how we're going to address it," UK Coach Gary Henderson said. "We'll certainly address the entire thing tomorrow before practice. Obviously a very disappointing performance all the way around."

Louisville (24-9), ranked as high as 19th (Collegiate Baseball Writers), got at least one hit from every starter. Cole Sturgeon, hitting ninth, led with three hits, and Nick Ratajczak, Zak Wasserman, Alex Chittenden, Adam Engel and Zach Lucas had two each.

U of L starter Jared Ruxer (5-0), a freshman right-hander, baffled the Cats through six-plus shutout innings.

"I was just excited really," Ruxer said. "It was a good environment to play in and it was a big challenge against a good team, and we just played well all around."

Ruxer threw 98 pitches, 65 for strikes, and retired 18 of 22 batters. He gave up three singles and a walk while striking out six. The Cats got only two runners as far as second base while Ruxer was on the mound.

"He's had a lot of quality starts," U of L Coach Dan McDonnell said, noting Ruxer beat Mississippi and had a quality no-decision against Purdue. "But I'll tell you, he doesn't act like a freshman. He's very consistent. He's a bright young man. It's not shocking to us at all, but it is fun to watch when you see a freshman perform on a consistent basis like he's doing."

Sturgeon and Matt Koch came on in relief as UK matched a season low with only four hits.

Thomas McCarthy had two of the Cats' hits. UK leadoff man Austin Cousino, a freshman, failed to reach safely for only the second time in his 33 games.

"I thought Ruxer pitched extremely well. We never got anything going," Henderson said. "We never created any breaks for ourselves. The first two balls we hit hard they made plays on."

The Cats (30-4) swept Louisville last season.

The Cardinals will try for the sweep when the teams meet April 24 at U of L.

The Cards plated three runs in the first.

Stewart Ijames singled through the right side to drive in the first run, his team-leading 38th RBI.

Another scored on Chittenden's sacrifice fly and a third scored on Wasserman's bloop single to left.

U of L added two in the third, one in the sixth, four in the eighth and two in the ninth.

In the third, one run scored on Wasserman's fourth homer of the season.

The four-spot in the eighth came on an infield hit, two errors and three walks.

UK starter A.J. Reed (4-1) didn't make it out of the inning.

"I made some good pitches. They put good swings on them," Reed said. "It was just one of those games where things went their way and they really didn't go ours. But it's a learning experience really.

"We haven't had a game like this this year, so we've got to learn from this, know what we've got to do next time and when we go down to Arkansas, we've got to play a lot better."

UK will visit Arkansas for three games this weekend.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/04/10/21465...rylink=cpy

You can't win them all.

Even if you are Kentucky and you are ranked No. 1 in the country by the Collegiate Baseball poll.

Even if you lead the Eastern Division in the strongest baseball conference in the nation.

Even if you entered the game with a 22-1 record in your home park.

The Kentucky baseball team, ranked 2nd by Baseball America, got drubbed by visiting and No. 19 Louisville 12-0 on Tuesday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

In case you couldn't tell from the final score, it wasn't the Cats' night.

Starter A.J. Reed entered the night with a 4-0 record and a 2.42 ERA. He left after 22⁄3 innings, having given up five runs on nine hits. That should tell you something right there.

Second in the nation in batting average at .328, the Cats managed just one hit through the first four innings and three hits through seven.

They were out-hit 17-4.

They committed four errors.

They had won 21 straight non-conference games until Dan McDonnell's team came to town.

Austin Cousino entered hitting .365 on the season. He was hitless in four at-bats. A.J. Reed entered hitting .350. He was hitless in four at-bats. Luke Maile entered hitting .341. He went hitless, as well.

Before Tuesday, Kentucky had lost three baseball games by a total of nine runs. It took its fourth loss by 12 runs.

On the one hand, this is a rivalry game. Losses to a rival are never good.

It's Louisville. No matter the sport, Kentucky-Louisville means something. Consider that Tuesday night's game drew a season-high crowd of 3,563 on a cool night. Make that a cold night. If you were a Kentucky fan, very cold.

(By game's end, maybe 35 of the 3,563 were still in attendance.)

For someone (blush) who had not seen the surprise Cats play this season, it wasn't the best night to come out and catch nine innings.

On the other hand, in the grand scheme of things, the result means little besides state bragging rights. And let's be honest, thanks to that basketball game on March 31 in New Orleans, UK owns those rights for the foreseeable future.

As for baseball, Louisville would rather win the Big East. The Cards enter this weekend a game out of first place in the conference.

Kentucky would rather win the SEC. The Cats lead Florida by two games in the Eastern Division.

Consider that Reed, UK's starting pitcher on Tuesday, has not started an SEC game this season. His previous starts were against Morehead State, Marshall and Wright State. In college baseball, teams save their top starters for the weekends.

This weekend, the Cats travel to No. 11 Arkansas, where Fayetteville will surely still be talking about the stunning fall of football coach Bobby Petrino. Make that former football coach Bobby Petrino.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the spectrum, Tuesday night notwithstanding, UK Coach Gary Henderson has executed a tremendous turnaround.

His team was 13-17 in the SEC a year ago. It sits 9-3 this year, its best league start in school history. The Cats won 31 games all of last year. They are 30-4 this season, still the best start in school history.

Kentucky had won 21 straight games at home before Saturday's loss to Ole Miss. The Cats rebounded to rip the Rebels on Sunday to win their fourth SEC series in as many tries this spring.

In the midst of a disappointing season last year, Kentucky swept the Cardinals.

In the midst of a terrific season this year, Kentucky lost the first of two to the Cardinals. (This year's rematch comes April 24 at Louisville.)

That's the way it goes.

It's baseball.

Sometimes, it's just not your night.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/04/10/21464...rylink=cpy