The Colonels come to Lexington tomorrow for a 4pm tilt. The Colonels have played 6 games this season and are 2-4. They started the year playing Georgia Tech where they took the Saturday game, but lost the series. They then played Louisville during the midweek and lost 2-6 before playing 2 against Presbyterian and splitting them.
An interesting aspect to this is that EKU did not play on Sunday. So, their Sunday starter, Jake Lewis has not pitched since February 21st. So, EKU could conceivable send him out there tomorrow at maybe limit his pitches so that he is available to pitch against ETSU this weekend. The other option is for Brennan Kelly to pitch again. He has appeared in 3 games already and has a win and 1 start. He started against Louisville, but only went 2 innings before getting pulled.
Jake Lewis is a 6’2 190 pound junior lefty. We faced him before, when he was a freshman and he did okay against us. He went 1.1 innings where he gave up a couple of hits and a run. He struck out 2 and gave up a home run. It says the run wasn’t earned, but I’m not sure how a HR is not an earned run… I guess if there is an error earlier in the bat that allowed the hitter extra life? Lewis has appeared in one game this season, against GA Tech and he threw 4.2 innings and gave up 3 earned runs off of 4 hits, walking 1 and striking out 3. Of those 4 hits, 1 was a double and 1 a home run. Opponents hit just .211 against him, so he got lots of outs, but the hits just came at a bad time for him. Carries a 5.79 ERA on the year and a career ERA of 8.12 through 47.2 innings of work.
Brennan Kelly is also a left hander, but he’s a senior that goes 6’1 195. He transferred from Kankakee Community College prior to 2019 and in 2019 he started 15 games going 4-4 with a 4.95 ERA. In 2020 he started 4 games and had a 6.75 ERA while striking out 11 in 17.1 innings and walking 11. So far in 2021 he has 3 appearances with 1 start. He has thrown 7.1 innings and given up 6 earned runs. He’s walked 4 while striking out 6 and given up 2 doubles and a home run. Opponents hitting .281 against him. He started against Louisville, but just went about 2 innings. He is being used a lot early in this season, so it is possible they may play around with him some and see if they like him better starting or out of the bullpen. Even if he doesn’t get the start in this one, you likely see him at some point.
As a team the Colonels carry a 6.35 ERA through 51 innings pitched. They have given up 46 runs, 36 earned on 60 hits. They are very prone to giving up extra base hits with 14 doubles/triples to go with 8 home runs. They have also hit 8 batters and balked twice. All in all, UK hitters should eat against the Colonels. EKU bullpen is giving up about 7.7 runs per game, and have only given up fewer than 5 in one of those, the last one against Presbyterian. Given what I am seeing it looks like they are mighty prone to giving up a lot of mistake pitches. For instance, UL broke things open in the third against Kelly when he gave up a single and a walk, Farley (a 6’3 200 lb lefty) then took his place and gave up back to back singles to go along with another walk and a hit batter. That sort of inning will be there for UK if we can take advantage. However, where I have to give EKU a ton of credit is that they will strike hitters out. Louisville struck out 10 times, Georgia Tech over the course of the weekend struck out something like 24 times.
The biggest threats at the plate are Caleb Upshaw and Daniel Harris. Upshaw plays either RF or hits as a DH. He is hitting .318, but he has 6 RBIs on the year, as well as 3 doubles. He isn’t quite as patient with just 3 walks to 6 strikeouts, but he seems to get those hits when EKU needs runs. Harris plays 2nd for EKU and is doing an atrocious job hitting the baseball with a BA of .160. Despite that, he had 6 RBIs. Most of these came against Presbyterian and may in large part be due to a home run. Still, 6 is a good number. He is not one to walk with just 1 on the year. So, he will mostly put the ball in play.
Brent Lovell is another that seems to get the timely hits and the RBIs. He has 5 on the year while hitting just .190. Again, I think most of his came off of a home run, but that is part of it. He’s done a pretty solid job drawing walks with 4 and has struck out 4 times. He plays 1B for EKU.
All in all, EKU doesn’t have an offense we should be extremely fearful of. UK’s park plays pretty big and EKU doesn’t hit home runs. Doubles are more familiar, but their number through 6 games isn’t exceedingly high with 8 (UK has 11 in 4 games). All in all I think UK just needs to go right at EKU hitters and dare them to hit it. Keep them off the bases by not giving up free bases and things get easier for us.
An interesting aspect to this is that EKU did not play on Sunday. So, their Sunday starter, Jake Lewis has not pitched since February 21st. So, EKU could conceivable send him out there tomorrow at maybe limit his pitches so that he is available to pitch against ETSU this weekend. The other option is for Brennan Kelly to pitch again. He has appeared in 3 games already and has a win and 1 start. He started against Louisville, but only went 2 innings before getting pulled.
Jake Lewis is a 6’2 190 pound junior lefty. We faced him before, when he was a freshman and he did okay against us. He went 1.1 innings where he gave up a couple of hits and a run. He struck out 2 and gave up a home run. It says the run wasn’t earned, but I’m not sure how a HR is not an earned run… I guess if there is an error earlier in the bat that allowed the hitter extra life? Lewis has appeared in one game this season, against GA Tech and he threw 4.2 innings and gave up 3 earned runs off of 4 hits, walking 1 and striking out 3. Of those 4 hits, 1 was a double and 1 a home run. Opponents hit just .211 against him, so he got lots of outs, but the hits just came at a bad time for him. Carries a 5.79 ERA on the year and a career ERA of 8.12 through 47.2 innings of work.
Brennan Kelly is also a left hander, but he’s a senior that goes 6’1 195. He transferred from Kankakee Community College prior to 2019 and in 2019 he started 15 games going 4-4 with a 4.95 ERA. In 2020 he started 4 games and had a 6.75 ERA while striking out 11 in 17.1 innings and walking 11. So far in 2021 he has 3 appearances with 1 start. He has thrown 7.1 innings and given up 6 earned runs. He’s walked 4 while striking out 6 and given up 2 doubles and a home run. Opponents hitting .281 against him. He started against Louisville, but just went about 2 innings. He is being used a lot early in this season, so it is possible they may play around with him some and see if they like him better starting or out of the bullpen. Even if he doesn’t get the start in this one, you likely see him at some point.
As a team the Colonels carry a 6.35 ERA through 51 innings pitched. They have given up 46 runs, 36 earned on 60 hits. They are very prone to giving up extra base hits with 14 doubles/triples to go with 8 home runs. They have also hit 8 batters and balked twice. All in all, UK hitters should eat against the Colonels. EKU bullpen is giving up about 7.7 runs per game, and have only given up fewer than 5 in one of those, the last one against Presbyterian. Given what I am seeing it looks like they are mighty prone to giving up a lot of mistake pitches. For instance, UL broke things open in the third against Kelly when he gave up a single and a walk, Farley (a 6’3 200 lb lefty) then took his place and gave up back to back singles to go along with another walk and a hit batter. That sort of inning will be there for UK if we can take advantage. However, where I have to give EKU a ton of credit is that they will strike hitters out. Louisville struck out 10 times, Georgia Tech over the course of the weekend struck out something like 24 times.
The biggest threats at the plate are Caleb Upshaw and Daniel Harris. Upshaw plays either RF or hits as a DH. He is hitting .318, but he has 6 RBIs on the year, as well as 3 doubles. He isn’t quite as patient with just 3 walks to 6 strikeouts, but he seems to get those hits when EKU needs runs. Harris plays 2nd for EKU and is doing an atrocious job hitting the baseball with a BA of .160. Despite that, he had 6 RBIs. Most of these came against Presbyterian and may in large part be due to a home run. Still, 6 is a good number. He is not one to walk with just 1 on the year. So, he will mostly put the ball in play.
Brent Lovell is another that seems to get the timely hits and the RBIs. He has 5 on the year while hitting just .190. Again, I think most of his came off of a home run, but that is part of it. He’s done a pretty solid job drawing walks with 4 and has struck out 4 times. He plays 1B for EKU.
All in all, EKU doesn’t have an offense we should be extremely fearful of. UK’s park plays pretty big and EKU doesn’t hit home runs. Doubles are more familiar, but their number through 6 games isn’t exceedingly high with 8 (UK has 11 in 4 games). All in all I think UK just needs to go right at EKU hitters and dare them to hit it. Keep them off the bases by not giving up free bases and things get easier for us.
