LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Wofford baseball team got on the board first Sunday afternoon at Kentucky Proud Park, but the No. 23 Kentucky Wildcats scraped across two runs later in the contest where runs were a premium. After the loss in a 2-1 pitchers' duel, the Terriers move to 12-4 on the season as the Wildcats improve to 12-2.
Dylan Rhadans started for Wofford and hurled 3.2 innings with just one run allowed on four hits and one walk. He struck out one.
Austin Laughlin (1-1) suffered a tough-luck loss, giving up just one run in 3.1 innings of relief. He surrendered only one hit and one walk.
Carter Rasmussen tossed a scoreless frame, allowing only one hit and striking out a batter.
Kentucky reliever Scott Rouse (3-0) picked up the win after pitching the final 4.0 innings of the contest with no runs allowed despite three hits and a pair of walks.
Pitching dominated the game on both sides, with Kentucky holding a slight hits edge, 6-5.
Adam Haber led the Terrier offense with two hits, one of which was a double.
Harrison Campi,
Niko Brini, and
Tyler Bak added the other three hits. Bak swiped two bases in the contest, and Brini added one.
Wofford again struck first, doing so in all three games of the series. The Terriers put on a small ball clinic in the top of the second to scratch across a run.
Adam Haber led off with a single, and Hutner Herndon sacrificed him to second.
Tyler Bak put down a perfect bunt that he legged out, putting runners on the corners. It was not long before Bak took off for second, and Kentucky feigned to second and threw to third, expecting a delayed double steal. However, the throw sailed into the outfield, enabling Haber to race home for the 1-0 edge.
The pitchers' duel continued into the fourth as the third inning went by with no score for either team.
Dylan Rhadans neutralized a Kentucky threat in the bottom of the inning with a well-timed pick-off throw to catch the over-eager Wildcat runner with two outs.
Kentucky cracked onto the board with a run off an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, tying the game at 1-1.
Austin Laughlin kept the margin there, stranding a pair of runners out of the bullpen as he induced a two-out groundout.
After a scoreless fifth inning, the Wildcats tacked on another run to claim the lead in the bottom of the sixth. A sacrifice fly pushed across the go-ahead run, but Bak's running over-the-shoulder catch on the play limited the damage to save an extra-base hit. Kentucky led just 2-1.
Both the seventh and eighth innings went by scoreless, meaning Wofford's last chance came down to the top of the ninth.
Niko Brini's one-out single provided some late life for the Terriers, and his two-out steal put the potential tying run in scoring position. However, Kentucky induced a grounder to close out the game and win, 2-1, despite Wofford's best efforts.
The Terriers continue their seven-game road stint on Tuesday, March 11, with a trip to former SoCon foe College of Charleston. The midweek match-up is slated for a 4:00 p.m. first pitch.
