Wildcats Hold Off Breds at Brooks Stadium

Tuesday, May 18

Paducah, Ky.

6 p.m.

Murray State

University of Kentucky

5/19/2010 4:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Murray State got home runs from Jason Laws and Daniel Hill, but it was a four-run ninth inning that proved to the difference as Kentucky walked out of Brooks Stadium with a 6-3 victory in front 1,571 fans Tuesday evening.

“The atmosphere was phenomenal,” said head coach Rob McDonald. “It is just a great place to play and it was a great ballgame for the fans to watch.”

The Wildcats (30-23) got on the board in the first inning as Chris Bisson ripped a double to right field and scored on Gunner Glad's one-out double down the left-field line. Lance Ray followed with an RBI single through the right side.

That would be all that the Wildcat offense would get for a long time as Breds starter Dan Huff settled in to retire the side in order in the second. MSU went to the bullpen in the third, as was planned, and Marc Harmon came in and fanned four over his two innings of hitless work.

Alex Love got the nod for the fifth and sixth innings and he retired all six hitters that he faced. Matt McGaha entered in the seventh and allowed a leadoff base hit before retiring the next six hitters in order.

The Breds (25-23-1) got on the board in the fourth as Laws hit a solo home run to right field, his fourth of the season.

MSU had a chance to take the lead in the seventh inning as Cory Hodskins reached on a fielding error with two outs. Kyle Tiernan and Elliot Frey were hit by pitches, but UK reliever Walter Wijas was able to get out of the jam by striking out Zach Noonan.

UK finally got some offense going in the ninth as Ray and Keenan Wiley walked to put two on with two outs. Taylor Black followed with a two-run double down the left field line. Andy Burn followed with an RBI single up the middle and came all the way around to score as he took off for second and the ball was thrown into left center.

The Breds did not go quietly in the bottom of the ninth as Laws singled through the left side to start the frame. Hill came off the bench to pinch and delivered a blast to straight-away center field on a 3-2 pitch. It was Hill's first at-bat since April 27 due to an injury.

“I was looking for a good pitch to hit and I knew he would be throwing a lot of fastballs,” sad Hill. “I was a little anxious on the first few and swung through some pitches that were probably balls. I settled down after those two and got back into the count after a couple offspeed pitches. I had a feeling he was going to try and come in with a fastball and I was able to catch every bit of it.”

Dan Huff (1-4) was saddled with the loss after he allowed two runs on three hits over two innings. Joe Devine (1-1) earned the victory after allowing one run on three hits over 5.1 innings.

Laws led the offense by going 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.

Wes Cunningham extended his hit streak to 14 games with a single to center field in the first inning. The base hit was the 228th of his career and moved him into a tie with Tyler Pittman for the all-time record at MSU.

The Breds return to the diamond this weekend as they close out the regular season at Tennessee Tech on May21-22. The series gets underway with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Friday and concludes with a 1 p.m. first pitch Saturday.