Kentucky is a No. 13 Seed in the SEC Baseball Tournament

It was not the way the Wildcats wanted to end the regular season. Arkansas scored 10 runs in the opening frame to blitz the Bat Cats. Kentucky made a valiant effort, tying the game at 12 in the fifth inning, but could not complete the comeback, falling 16-12. Now the Bat Cats must absorb the gut-punch and quickly move on to what lies ahead.

The SEC Tournament begins at the Hoover Met on Tuesday. Kentucky will be included on opening day. The No. 13 seeded Wildcats will face No. 12 Vanderbilt at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.

Once upon a time, the SEC Baseball Tournament had an unusual format that featured portions of double-elimination play. That’s no longer the case. We are now in the second year of the single-elimination tournament. Kentucky will need to win five games in six days to claim the program’s first-ever SEC Tournament Title.

As for the next tournament, the Kentucky baseball team should be in good shape. That “should” feels like it’s doing a lot of work.

Teams with 13 wins in SEC play are essentially a lock for the NCAA Tournament. The Bat Cats got that on Friday. However, Nick Mingione canceled a mid-week game with NKU after the NCAA issued a statement warning teams who made a similar move to preserve their RPI. Will that cost the Bat Cats a spot on the wrong side of the bubble? A few wins at the SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover could go a long way to ensure they secure a spot in an NCAA Tournament Regional.

KSR will have boots on the ground in Hoover when Adam Luckett makes the trek down I-65. Hopefully, he’s blessed with dry weather and a couple of good wins in his SEC Baseball Tournament debut.

Kentucky’s Team Sheet

Kentucky sits at No. 35 in RPI after this weekend’s action. The Bat Cats own a 7-8 Quad 1 record and 4-4 Quad 2 record. The game against Vanderbilt will be a Quad 2 contest. Vandy took a competitive series against UK at Kentucky Proud Park in April.

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