The Kentucky baseball team defeated No. 24 Tennessee 12-2 at Kentucky Proud Park on May 2, extending its winning streak to three games.
The win was marked by both offensive power and effective pitching, as the Wildcats hit four home runs during the game. This brought their total to eight home runs over the current three-game streak, showing a notable increase in hitting strength.
Freshman Caeden Cloud started the scoring with a home run in the third inning, followed by Tyler Bell who added another homer later that inning. Hudson Brown, returning after several weeks away from play, hit a home run in the fourth inning. Ethan Hindle also contributed with his second consecutive game featuring a home run in the seventh inning.
Head coach Nick Mingione said his coaching staff played an important role in this improvement at bat: “I give our coaches a lot of credit,” Mingione said. “They’ve just continued to work with out guys and try to find what’s right. And, to our guys’ credit, they just continue to work.”
Pitcher Jaxon Jelkin delivered an impressive performance on the mound by pitching all eight innings without allowing any walks and striking out eleven batters—a season high for him—while giving up only two runs and four hits. “Unbelievable. Just an awesome outing,” Mingione said. “To go that long, eight innings, not walk a guy, attack the strike zone, got in a little bit of trouble, worked his way out of it. Just kept pounding the strike zone and did exactly what our team needed. And to get a complete game against an unbelievable, really good Tennessee team. That’s exactly what we needed.”
Mingione also commented on Jelkin’s pitch variety: “He has so many pitches,” Mingione said. “He throws the two-seamer, he can throw the four-seamer. He throws his cutter, he has a curveball. He has a changeup. It’s just a full on arsenal and he had command today of all of them.”
In addition to strong offense and pitching performances, defense played an important role according to Mingione: “I thought our defense was awesome,” Mingione said. “You go all around the field and I thought our defense was great.”
With this win against Southeastern Conference competition for their third straight victory overall, Kentucky continues its momentum heading into future matchups.
