Baseball Schedule 2022
- Thread starter Comebakatz3
- Start date
That’s a nice schedule. If Mingione can’t do much with that I don’t know what to say.
TCU with their 1st year head coach, Saarloos. He was their pitching coach for 9 years, so one would think that things might not change too much for them. Especially given that the staff really didn't change at all. He kept the hitting coach and promoted the volunteer assistant.
Not sure at this point what they return from a year ago but their roster currently lists 23 players.
Not sure at this point what they return from a year ago but their roster currently lists 23 players.
Ole Kirk Saarloos? He played for the Reds for a little bit. Can't remember where else. Oakland maybe?
Yep, that's right. Played for Oakland and a bit for Houston. Pitched for 7 seasons in the bigs before becoming a coach.
All right, I am itching for baseball. Due to that, I went to the UK website to do some digging and see if maybe they had the new media guide out. No such luck. However, they did have the record book, so I decided to look at how we've historically fared against all our opponents.
I have no idea why some of the SEC East opponents have 2019 as the last time we played them when we play them every single year. It looks like they just didn't include last year for some of the teams for whatever reason. So, here is how we did against them last year, just in case you want a horrible reminder:
Also, pretty insane that we have tied Vanderbilt 5 times. 4 of those were in Nashville and 1 in Lexington. If you recall, the tie was typically in effect on Sundays. The rule was that no inning could start after a certain time due to travel and getting students back to classes on Monday. So, if a game just happened to be tied when whatever that time was (can't recall the time), then the game was over and it ended in a tie. The last time we tied was under Cohen in 2007 when we tied LSU.
High Point will be the only team we have not faced before. So, that is pretty interesting.
Some more highlights:
We have 0 active players that are currently ranked in the UK record books for offense in a single season. That, isn't surprising given our turnover.
On the mound:
Mason Hazelwood's 1.64 ERA in 2020 ranks as the 4th best in UK history. It comes with an asterisk as UK didn't play SEC baseball that year, but still an impressive ERA. Hazelwood also was pretty solid in 2021 with a 2.13 ERA, but that year was also cut short for him.
Hazelwood is also on the career list with a Hits/9 Innings that ranks 3rd best overall at 6.67
Daniel Harper's 28 appearances in 2019 is tied for 7th most in UK history. Interestingly, Cole Daniels is also tied for 7th with 28 from 2019. I think that kind of shows how hard pressed UK was to find good pitching in 2019 given that the relied so heavily on just 2 guys out of the bullpen. Cole Ayers wasn't far behind with 26 and Coleman with 23. Harper had a 4.80 ERA that year. This past year he had a 4.35 ERA with 23 appearances and 31 innings pitched. He likely has another pretty good sized role in 2022.
Sean Harney and Zack Lee both appear on the HBP list. Harney is tied for first on the list after hitting 20 batters a year ago. He is in good company, as he's tied with Cy Young winner Brandon Webb. Lee is tied for 6th on the list with 12 hit batters. He too is in good company, tied with Sean Hjelle.
Interestingly... we had the fewest errors of any season in 2021 with 39, it was also the best fielding percentage in school history at .978.
Here is one I hate: 3 of UK highest strikeout totals have come under Nick Mingione. The highest was in 2019 with 527. 2021 and 2018 are 4th and 5th with 457 and 455. I have to imagine that 2020 would have been on that list as well had it been a full year. So, it could have been 4 of his 5 years in the top 6 of all time for strikeouts for UK, and probably would have been 4 years in a row with those numbers. Not ideal. Even more crazy considering that 2017 we are a UK top 5 in pretty much every offensive category.
| Opponent | Win | Loss | Tie | Last Game |
| @ Jacksonville State | 0 | 1 | 1974 | |
| SEMO | 1 | 0 | 2020 | |
| Western Michigan | 13 | 4 | 2009 | |
| Western Kentucky | 39 | 28 | 2020 | |
| Evansville | 8 | 10 | 2021 | |
| TCU | 0 | 3 | 2020 | |
| Murray State | 21 | 7 | 2021 | |
| Ohio | 10 | 8 | 2017 | |
| High Point | 0 | 0 | ||
| @ Indiana | 23 | 18 | 2019 | |
| @ Arkansas | 26 | 43 | 2019 | |
| Morehead State | 47 | 27 | 2019 | |
| Georgia | 100 | 139 | 1 | 2021 |
| Eastern Kentucky | 71 | 26 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ole Miss | 35 | 52 | 2019 | |
| Louisville | 72 | 48 | 1 | 2021 |
| @ Texas A&M | 6 | 9 | 2019 | |
| Bellarmine | 26 | 7 | 2021 | |
| @ Missouri | 14 | 11 | 2021 | |
| Vanderbilt | 148 | 152 | 5 | 2019 |
| Dayton | 10 | 2 | 2016 | |
| @ Florida | 70 | 145 | 1 | 2021 |
| Tennessee | 153 | 161 | 2019 | |
| Tennessee Martin | 6 | 0 | 2017 | |
| @ South Carolina | 41 | 56 | 2019 | |
| Tennessee Tech | 12 | 1 | 2020 | |
| Auburn | 48 | 79 | 2021 |
I have no idea why some of the SEC East opponents have 2019 as the last time we played them when we play them every single year. It looks like they just didn't include last year for some of the teams for whatever reason. So, here is how we did against them last year, just in case you want a horrible reminder:
| Tennessee | 1 | 3 |
| Vanderbilt | 1 | 3 |
| South Carolina | 0 | 3 |
Also, pretty insane that we have tied Vanderbilt 5 times. 4 of those were in Nashville and 1 in Lexington. If you recall, the tie was typically in effect on Sundays. The rule was that no inning could start after a certain time due to travel and getting students back to classes on Monday. So, if a game just happened to be tied when whatever that time was (can't recall the time), then the game was over and it ended in a tie. The last time we tied was under Cohen in 2007 when we tied LSU.
High Point will be the only team we have not faced before. So, that is pretty interesting.
Some more highlights:
We have 0 active players that are currently ranked in the UK record books for offense in a single season. That, isn't surprising given our turnover.
On the mound:
Mason Hazelwood's 1.64 ERA in 2020 ranks as the 4th best in UK history. It comes with an asterisk as UK didn't play SEC baseball that year, but still an impressive ERA. Hazelwood also was pretty solid in 2021 with a 2.13 ERA, but that year was also cut short for him.
Hazelwood is also on the career list with a Hits/9 Innings that ranks 3rd best overall at 6.67
Daniel Harper's 28 appearances in 2019 is tied for 7th most in UK history. Interestingly, Cole Daniels is also tied for 7th with 28 from 2019. I think that kind of shows how hard pressed UK was to find good pitching in 2019 given that the relied so heavily on just 2 guys out of the bullpen. Cole Ayers wasn't far behind with 26 and Coleman with 23. Harper had a 4.80 ERA that year. This past year he had a 4.35 ERA with 23 appearances and 31 innings pitched. He likely has another pretty good sized role in 2022.
Sean Harney and Zack Lee both appear on the HBP list. Harney is tied for first on the list after hitting 20 batters a year ago. He is in good company, as he's tied with Cy Young winner Brandon Webb. Lee is tied for 6th on the list with 12 hit batters. He too is in good company, tied with Sean Hjelle.
Interestingly... we had the fewest errors of any season in 2021 with 39, it was also the best fielding percentage in school history at .978.
Here is one I hate: 3 of UK highest strikeout totals have come under Nick Mingione. The highest was in 2019 with 527. 2021 and 2018 are 4th and 5th with 457 and 455. I have to imagine that 2020 would have been on that list as well had it been a full year. So, it could have been 4 of his 5 years in the top 6 of all time for strikeouts for UK, and probably would have been 4 years in a row with those numbers. Not ideal. Even more crazy considering that 2017 we are a UK top 5 in pretty much every offensive category.
We remain the only SEC that has not made the CWS. Every other team has made it multiple times and we haven't even made it once. Our lack of commitment to baseball throughout the history of the university is an absolute disgrace. I hope that with the improvements we made several years ago, this turns around. I am skeptical considering that many of the SEC schools have already passed us in upgrades, or are planning to do so.
It’s not only been baseball. UK has only recently made commitments to the overall athletic department. Recently meaning past 10-15 years. Prior to Barnhart our AD’s were Basketball Directors, not Athletic Directors. That’s played a major role why I’m not the largest basketball fan.
Definitely. I love that Barnhart has made us a more complete athletic department. So, while he certainly has his shortcomings and I have some issues with the decisions he makes, I am still happy we have him and know that he's easily the best we've ever had.
I love all UK sports and want them all to succeed. I'm cheering for us in everything. That being said, they should all compliment one another and not work at the detriment of one another as they have in the past.
Good news is we are about 5-6 weeks away from the start of the baseball season. I would certainly like to see Rowland and the guys more active with the baseball program, especially now since I am a new premium member.
You'll get a few baseball stories, but even on HOB you're not likely to get much, if any, insider information. There is some good conversation on there during the season though.
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