Kentucky shakes up weekend rotation for final regular season series

The biggest series of the season has arrived for the Kentucky baseball program. Kentucky needs a win, or two, to secure a fourth consecutive bid to the NCAA Tournament. That adds more pressure to the weekend at Kentucky Proud Park. The schedule also creates some problems.

Kentucky is playing a Thursday-Saturday series this weekend at home against Arkansas. That has led to head coach Nick Migione to make some changes to the weekend rotation. The starters remain the same as last week but the order has been shaken up.

• Thursday: Nate Harris (4-2, 5.72 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 39.1 IP, 36 K)
• Friday: Ben Cleaver (2-3, 3.57 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, 40.1 IP, 41 K)
• Saturday: Jaxon Jelkin (8-2, 3.57 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 80.2 IP, 92 K)

Kentucky ace Jaxon Jelkin threw over 120 pitches in a complete game on Saturday night. To give him as much rest as possible, UK is saving the righty for the series finale this weekend. Nate Harris is being moved up to Game 1 after being pulled in the first inning against Florida on Sunday morning. The sophomore had missed the last three weekends with a shoulder injury. Ben Cleaver is off consecutive solid starts that included seven innings of shutout baseball against Tennessee and four innings of one-run baseball against Florida.

The rotation order will be different this weekend for a huge series. Kentucky’s best card will not be played until Saturday afternoon. UK is just 2-7 in series finales all season but Jelkin has not pitched in one of those games yet. That will change this weekend.

On Deck: Arkansas

Date	Opponent	Venue	Time	TV
May 14 (Thursday)	Arkansas	Kentucky Proud Park	6:30 p.m. ET	ESPN+
May 15 (Friday)	Arkansas	Kentucky Proud Park	6:30 p.m. ET	ESPN+
May 16 (Saturday)	Arkansas	Kentucky Proud Park	2 p.m. ET	ESPN+