UK vs Auburn SEC tourney.....

[CloverforkCat]

Cats are 30-24 coming in, need to win today to keep NCAA tourney hopes alive. Zack Brown gets the start against the Tigers, with Cole Lispcome most likely on the hill for Auburn.
One thing I find interesting as a form of motivation for one UK player, Ka'ai Tom was left off both the 1st and 2nd team All-SEC list by the coaches. After hitting .368, with 49 rbi, and 15 stolen bases, and being 1st team last year, this is a curious omit by the SEC coaches. But that may be a good thing for the Cats, as Tom will no doubt be slightly pizzed off at that snub !

 

[Comebakatz3]

The Missouri/USC game is going pretty quickly. They are already into the bottom of the 7th so we should definitely be playing on time in Hoover.

 

[CloverforkCat]

The Missouri/USC game is going pretty quickly. They are already into the bottom of the 7th so we should definitely be playing on time in Hoover.

Yep, Mizzou's starter was very good today, Caraoke had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, and didn't even get a run out of it. 3-1 Missouri, bottom of the 8th.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Some fun facts about Auburn...

They have only won 3 SEC series this year, against Ole Miss, Miss. State, and Georgia. UK got a series win in 5 SEC contests this year, Miss State, Tennessee, LSU, Florida, and Missouri.

Lipscomb will be on the mound for the Tigers. He has a 2.45 ERA in the SEC and has struck out 48 hitters to just 20 walks. He is going to go into the 6th inning pretty much no matter what, so UK needs to try to get to him early and put some runs up.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Missouri advances quickly 5-1 against South Carolina. It's just 4:18. Not sure if they will go ahead and push our game up or if they will wait over an hour before starting our game. Seems like they will wait until 5:30, but I am not completely positive.

 

[CloverforkCat]

Some fun facts about Auburn...

They have only won 3 SEC series this year, against Ole Miss, Miss. State, and Georgia. UK got a series win in 5 SEC contests this year, Miss State, Tennessee, LSU, Florida, and Missouri.

Lipscomb will be on the mound for the Tigers. He has a 2.45 ERA in the SEC and has struck out 48 hitters to just 20 walks. He is going to go into the 6th inning pretty much no matter what, so UK needs to try to get to him early and put some runs up.

Another thing about Auburn, they only hit 17 HR's this year, in fact their HR leaders are 3 players with 3 homers each. Playing in the big Hoover Met is not conducive to hitting Big flies.
The Tigers rely on pitching, defense, and small ball. Hopefully Zack will be on his game today, and will go 8 plus innings. First pitch is slated for 5:33 pm eastern, 4:33 pm central.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Well defense is already showing how suspect it is. This is not a good park to have poor defense. Shelby committed an error on a routine play on the first hitter. Then we had the guy on first picked off dead to rights and a poor throw from Fettes allowed him to get back in time.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Where's Bernal today?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Whew... the runners were bunted over for out number one. Then a wild pitch gets away from Fettes and the Auburn runner tries to take home, but UK gets him at the plate for out number 2. Need to get one more to get out of this.

 

[Comebakatz3]

UK got out of the inning!!

Not sure what is up with Bernal. Haven't seen anything about it on Twitter. Not good to go from a guy who was hitting .266 to one only hitting .215.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Got out of it...but IMO bad call at home, Auburn dude got his hand in on that bad tag...I'll take it though.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Got out of it...but IMO bad call at home, Auburn dude got his hand in on that bad tag...I'll take it though.

Yep... I think that was another instance where the ball got there first and so we got the call. Very lucky to get that. Also lucky that he hesitated.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Another mental error in the game. Shelby gets on thanks to an overthrow by Auburn, but tries to take second and the ball bounced right back to the first baseman before Shelby had even taken 5 steps towards second. He puts on the breaks and gets thrown out heading back to first.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Could we be getting any more lucky in this game? Got a great call our way at second to give us a double play.

Brown not pitching overly efficiently in this one. Already at around 50 pitches.

 

[Comebakatz3]

The second base umpire thought that it was ball 4, but instead, the home plate umpire goes to the 1st base umpire to get a call on a check swing. The check swing is called a strikeout and that makes the runner at second live, which UK threw out, even though he was safe by a mile. So instead of Auburn possibly having runners on first and second with no outs they have no one on with 2 outs. Now a single gives them one on.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Despite the luck here in the top of the 3rd, Brown still can't stay out of trouble as he gives up that single, then gives up a walk before giving up another single through the infield to score a run. Again, Brown is now at 64 pitches. A really poor outing for him in terms of efficiency so far.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Brown gives up another leadoff hit to start the top of the 4th. I don't know that we should leave him in much longer. We've played with fire a whole lot in the first part of the game. It won't be long before Auburn busts open for a big inning. Brown now walks the second hitter in the inning after working the count. He is now at 70 pitches.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Bernal got hurt in the Mizzou series. Been out the last two games. Brown has looked shaky at best. Been extremely lucky so far.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Well, scratch that. 3-0 top of the 4th

 

[Comebakatz3]

Got a lucky play to get the lead out at third when they put a bunt down. However, the next hitter comes up and hits a triple down the line to put Auburn up 3-0.

 

[cats1068]

That's the season right there. Maybe there be some pressure on Henderson next year. Probably not!

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Well, this has been fun. So many so many wasted chances this year and so much aggravation. Total failure this year.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I doubt it. Barnhart will use the stat that we've gotten to the SEC tournament 4 times in 4 years as a reason to keep him around.

 

[cats1068]

Serious question. How many times has UK made the NCAA tournament in Henderson's tenure?

 

[Comebakatz3]

In his 7 years we've made it twice ('12 & '14). Other than 2012 we have never finished higher than 4th in the SEC East.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Twice. 2012 and last year.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Hendo is known as a pitching coach but heres something that is extremely disheartening. This is the team ERA since Hendo came to Lexington.

2004: 5.86
2005: 5.23
2006: 3.95
2007: 4.56
2008: 3.71
2009: 5.55
2010: 5.85
2011: 4.73
2012: 3.41
2013: 3.58
2014: 4.03
2015: 4.33

Thats frighteningly bad!

 

[Comebakatz3]

There is no denying that Henderson has been bad. The only one that thinks otherwise would be Barnhart.

By the way, why is Carson playing right? He has no arm at all. 4-0 now for Auburn.

 

[blufvr4evr]

to late to cry now.......it's over.......wait til next,next,next,next.......YEAR.....same old, same old wait til next year

 

[Comebakatz3]

5-0 now Henderson once again does not actually plan to use his bullpen so he doesn't have them warmed up and has to scramble to get them down in the pen to get ready.

 

[blufvr4evr]

they all seem so uninterested......no fire, get up and go, just no desire to win.....very sad......

 

[cats1068]

7-8-9 in the lineup are automatic outs for UK

 

[Comebakatz3]

There are a lot of weird things about this team. The funny thing is that this Auburn team is actually probably how our team should be built.

 

[CloverforkCat]

I think we miss Brian Green as hitting coach more than anyone cares to admit. I had big expectations when we got Eckstein, and the numbers aren't bad, but we seemed to have more fire under his tenure.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I think we miss Brian Green as hitting coach more than anyone cares to admit. I had big expectations when we got Eckstein, and the numbers aren't bad, but we seemed to have more fire under his tenure.

That is pretty hard to say... I mean, when Javon Shelby is your power hitter you don't have a whole lot to hang your hat on.

 

[CloverforkCat]

^^^ Yeah, that's true. However we have not had any clutch hitting all year, as I type this K Tom hits a solo blast to break up the shut out.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Tom hit a blast!

 

[cats1068]

Tom hit what I refer to as an Adam Dunn HR. He used to hit irrelevant HR's a lot.

 

[CloverforkCat]

Wouldn't ya know, Spencer Jack comes in and looks like he did last year. Faced 4 batters, and has 3 strikeouts !

 

[Comebakatz3]

Maybe this game will show Henderson just how important pitching is and just how bad Henderson is at making these guys become top pitchers.