Maybe I am just jaded, but I'll believe it when I see it. Yes, the offense was ranked 20th nationally in scoring in the Spring. However, we played 2 really solid NCAA-type teams and in a combined 6 games against their weekend pitching we scored 10 runs, and in 4 of those 6 games we scored 1 run or less, with two of them being shutouts. Granted, when we weren't playing those two teams the offense regularly scored in bunches. We had one game over 20 runs, and 6 games over 10 runs.
We hit just fine against OOC opponents, but our approach takes a fairly steep decline in SEC play. In 2019 we hit .252 overall, but just .235 as a team in the SEC. That would be .273 OOC by itself, but the SEC hitting drug it down to .252 overall. It is always going to go down against the better pitching in the league, but UK has some pretty wide gaps. In 2018 we hit .320 against OOC opponents, but .271 against the league. Those numbers are high enough to continue to be competitive, so that isn't a huge deal, but losing almost 50 points on a batting average is a pretty big decline. In 2020 UK started the year hitting .301. That looks pretty good, but against the two major teams that we played (TCU and UNC Wilmington) UK hit an abysmal .190. That was with an 11 hit game. We hit sub .200 in three of those 6 games and below .240 in all of them. The best, an 11 hit game, we hit .297. So, there is some cause for concern that those numbers could be more reflective of how we would actually hit against SEC pitching. Of course, we're looking at tiny windows, so it is hard to really know.
Still... pitching. The good thing... UK returns all 3 weekend starters. The bad thing... none of them have proven (so far) that they are elite SEC quality pitchers. Hazelwood has proven to be the best with a 1.64 ERA a year ago, it really looked like he took a big step forward. He could continue that climb and be a guy we rely on a lot on the weekend. Likely still slated as a Saturday guy. Ramsey was also on the mounds on Fridays in the Spring, but will that continue? He had a 3.26 ERA. Bless the guy, but unless he takes a massive leap forward he just is not ace quality, particularly due to the fact that he loses control too often (12 walks in 19 innings). Then UK struggled to fill the Sunday role. Marsh struggled (6.27 ERA) and the freshmen were taking their lumps as freshmen. Lee was hard throwing and had some solid stuff, but also got roughed up at times (9.35 ERA), Stupp looked promising (7.63 ERA), but he too needed to make large strides. Dancing Alex Degen showed promise (2.51) but might be better suited out of the bullpen. So, do we rely on these guys to grow up, or can we find enough quality in the newcomers to put together a solid staff? Hagenow has the good, or so it seems... can it translate to SEC play? Holt Jones transferred from Clemson where he had a 3.93 ERA as a sophomore and pitched in over 54 innings, with 1 start. Can he be a starter, or is he really more of a relief guy? Sean Harney comes from UMass and has a starting pedigree with where he had 3.27 ERA in 2019. Is he good enough to be an SEC guy? Can Ben Jordan shake off all the rust and get back to his high school rating?
A lot of question marks for a team that has a good chunk of veterans. The bats have to lead them. Hopefully that .300+ batting average was no mistake and that they had just shaken off a slow start and were only going to improve in the league.
