Another weekend. Another sweep for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Nick Mingione’s team traveled to Alabama with relative ease, defeating the Crimson Tide by scores of 6-2, 7-0 and 10-1 to improve to a shocking 11-1 in the SEC. The Wildcats also swept Georgia at home and Ole Miss on the road and won two of three at Missouri.
All four of Kentucky’s opponents are below .500 in the conference, but there’s nothing haphazard about this team’s fast start. The Wildcats’ run differential through 12 SEC games is plus-71, and in championship games, Kentucky’s offense ranks second in batting average (.316), slugging (.550) and runs scored (114) and his pitching staff leads the league in batting average against (.188) and is second in ERA (3.09).
A year ago, the Wildcats got off to a 9-1 start in the league en route to a 16-14 finish.
According to SEC’s Ben Beaty, UK is the first team to start 9-1 in an SEC game in consecutive seasons in 32 years.
–Joe Healy (@JoeHealyD1) April 6, 2024
Around the horn
Arkansas continued its dominance on the mound, limiting Ole Miss to nine runs in a weekend game against the Rebels in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks, 11-1 in the SEC and ranked No. 1 in the nation, have a league-low 2.83 ERA in conference games and have not allowed more than five runs in any of their victories in the SEC.
All-America left-hander Hagen Smith is 4-0 in four SEC starts with a 1.50 ERA, .169 batting average and 43 strikeouts and seven walks in 24 innings.
We had fireworks Saturday night in Starkville. No punches were thrown, but the benches (sort of) cleared after Mississippi State catcher Johnny Long got a little too aggressive after throwing out Dillon Carter for the third out at the start of the eighth inning.
Play resumed after a 40-minute review (yes, 40 minutes!) that resulted in 11 ejections, and Georgia evened the series with a 3-2 victory thanks to a Clayton Chadwick homer in the top of the ninth.
There was speculation that all 11 players would be suspended for Sunday’s game, but upon further review, the league limited the suspensions to five: three from Georgia (Fernando Gonzalez, Henry Hunter and Daniel Padysak) and two from Mississippi State (Logan Kohler and Long). ). Because two of Georgia’s three players are receivers, the Bulldogs were allowed to stagger the suspensions. Hunter served his suspension Sunday and Gonzales will serve his for Tuesday’s game against Kennesaw State.
ICYMI: A play at the plate between Georgia and Mississippi State last night resulted in players entering the playing field, prompting a 40-minute review and 11 total ejections.
These 11 players have not all been named but are also expected to miss Sunday’s rubber match. pic.twitter.com/fr6SgoNb06
– SEC Baseball (@SECbaseball) April 7, 2024
Mississippi State won the series with a wild 9-8 victory Sunday afternoon.
Georgia slugger Charlie Condon was limited to just three hits in 12 at-bats – although one of his hits was his 20th home run in the country – and is now hitting only .458.
West Virginia All-American JJ Wetherholt was back in action this weekend after missing 24 games with a hamstring injury. As the Mountaineers’ designated hitter, Wetherholt went 5-for-13 as WVU swept three games from Kansas.
The Mountaineers are tied with Oklahoma atop the Big 12 standings with an 8-4 record in league play.
What’s happening in Fort Worth? TCU, which ranked in the top five by opening the season with 13 straight wins, was swept at Cincinnati this weekend to fall to 20-11 overall and a stunning 5-10 in the Big 12.
After losing 4-2 on Friday and 6-2 on Saturday, the Frogs showed little resistance on Sunday, falling to a discouraging 13-2 loss in seven innings. TCU has scored six points or fewer in 13 of its 15 conference games.
It’s safe to say that Nick Kurtz’s crisis is over. Wake Forest’s All-America first baseman hit three home runs in the Demon Deacons’ 10-4 win at Virginia Tech on Sunday and now has eight homers in the last five games.
Kurtz got off to a slow start to his junior season and missed six games with a shoulder injury, but he now looks like the hitter expected to be taken first in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft. He is hitting .298 with 11 home runs and an OPS of 1.238.
It was a big bounce-back weekend for Wake Forest, which was swept at home last weekend by North Carolina. The Deacs swept Virginia Tech – which was 10-2 in the ACC – and are now 7-8 in league play with a trip to Boston College looming next weekend.
Hey @ACCBaseball,
It’s us again. Please find attached our nomination for Player of the Week.
Peace and blessings,
Waking up baseball pic.twitter.com/FPb677DvpO– Wake Forest Baseball (@WakeBaseball) April 7, 2024
It was another productive weekend for Oregon State All-American Travis Bazzana. The junior second baseman went 5-for-12 with five runs scored and three RBIs as the Beavers swept Arizona State in Corvallis.
In Friday’s 13-8 victory, Bazzana hit his sixth home run of the season and 17th overall. It was his 34th career home run, tied with Joe Gerber and Andy Jarvis for first all-time at Oregon State.
Bazzana is second nationally in batting average (.472), slugging (1.056) and OPS (1.670).
A week after scoring a total of two runs and collecting just 10 hits during a weekend at Vanderbilt, Missouri recorded its first-ever sweep against the Florida Gators. The Tigers entered the weekend with a 1-8 record in the SEC, thanks in large part to an offense that was hitting an anemic .144 in championship games. They won low-scoring games Friday (2-1 in 11 innings) and Saturday (4-3) before exploding for 14 hits in Sunday’s thrilling 11-10 victory in which Missouri lost a quick 7-1 lead, then rallied for three. runs in the bottom of the ninth to eliminate the Gators on Jeric Curtis’ two-out single to center field.
Florida two-way star Jac Caglianone went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer Sunday, but had his worst performance of the season on the mound — allowing six earned runs in just 1 ⅓ innings. The Gators are 17-14 and 6-6 in the SEC.
Surging Louisiana, winner of 15 straight games, opened a three-game lead in the highly competitive Sun Belt. The Ragin’ Cajuns, who swept ULM this weekend, are 11-1 in league play, with Southern Miss and Georgia Southern both 8-4.
Louisiana, which entered the D1 Baseball top 25 this week at No. 19, and Coastal Carolina (20th) are the only two Sun Belt teams ranked. Coastal hosts the Ragin’ Cajuns in two weeks.
Freshman Christian Lim was a bright spot in what otherwise would have been a season to forget for Stanford.
Lim, a freshman from Nashville, is 3-2 with a 2.89 ERA and 54 strikeouts and 12 walks in 43 ⅔ innings. In Saturday’s 3-1 win over Washington State, Lim allowed just two hits and one earned run in a season-high eight innings.
Stanford is 13-16 overall and 6-6 in the Pac-12.
Iowa and Indiana, considered by most to be the top two teams in the Big Ten heading into the season, all but knocked themselves out of the general discussion for a regional bid. Iowa is 14-13 overall and 5-4 in league play after losing two of three at Purdue this weekend. Indiana, meanwhile, is 18-15 and 3-3 after a series win at Maryland.
Nebraska, at 5-1, is points ahead of Illinois (7-2) at the top of the league standings. The Cornhuskers, with an RPI of 17, appear to be the league’s best bet to receive an at-large bid if they don’t win the Big Ten tournament — although that RPI should drop a bit as they get deeper into play in league.
and finally
• LSU is 3-9 in the SEC after losing two of three to Vanderbilt in Baton Rouge. The Tigers have been dominated three times in championship games, each in the final game of the series.
• There are two teams nationally with a perfect league record with at least six conference games played: Bowling Green (12-0 in the MAC) and Rider (9-0 in the MAAC).
• A year after its surprise appearance in the College World Series — which began as a No. 4 seed in the Stillwater region — Oral Roberts is fighting to stay out of last place in the six-team Summit League. The Golden Eagles are 12-17-1 overall and 4-7-1 in league play.
• Virginia freshman Henry Ford hit three home runs in Thursday’s 14-11 win over North Carolina in Charlottesville. Ford, a Charlottesville native who played high school baseball at Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tenn., is hitting .377 with 10 homers and 43 RBIs.
• Louisville swept a three-game set against NC State to improve to 20-11 overall and 6-6 in the ACC. With an RPI of 90, the Cardinals will need to rack up a few more series wins before they can be considered a serious contender.
• Western Kentucky won two of three games at then No. 1. 8 Dallas Baptist at Bowling Green. The Hilltoppers held DBU to a total of seven points in the three games.
• Tennessee bounced back from a loss to Auburn on Friday night to bludgeon the Tigers with 31 runs (thanks to 12 homers) in the next two games. On Saturday, junior Blake Burke moved into first place on the Vols’ all-time list with the 41st bomb in his three-year career.
• Duke stayed within striking distance of first place in the ACC Coastal by sweeping Miami with three one-point victories, two of which were flawless. The Blue Devils are 9-6 in league play, tied for third with Virginia and two games behind the Tar Heels. Virginia Tech is second at 10-5.
• East Carolina won two of three games against FAU in an important American Athletic Conference series. The Pirates are 6-3 in league play, one game behind UTSA. FAU is 5-4.
• UC Irvine retained its spot atop the Big West standings by winning a series against UCSB. The Anteaters are 24-4 overall and 10-2 in the Big West.
(Photo courtesy of Kentucky Athletics)