With a familiar SEC foe waiting, Kentucky baseball finds its back against the wall

The bad news is the Kentucky baseball team is one loss away from being eliminated from the 2024 College World Series in Omaha. The good news is the Wildcats will not be facing Ryan Prager in their next game.

Prager is the 6-foot-3, 200-pound redshirt sophomore left-handed pitcher for Texas A&M who held the Cats hitless for 6 2/3 innings as the Aggies sent Kentucky to the losers bracket by a 5-1 score on a windy Monday night at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.

Its backs now to the wall, Nick Mingione’s club will meet familiar foe Florida in an 11 a.m. Wednesday game after the threat of severe weather led to a rescheduling of Tuesday night’s game. The winner earns a second shot at Texas A&M on Wednesday night. The loser packs its bags and heads home.

After winning its first six NCAA Tournament games, how might the Cats react to their first loss?

“I think if we got down on ourselves (after a loss), we wouldn’t be in this spot today,” UK center fielder Nolan McCarthy said.

Plus, while the Gators are good — much better than they were when they lost two of three to the Cats in Gainesville back in May — Florida doesn’t have Prager, who was simply outstanding on Monday in picking up his ninth win in 10 decisions on the season.

After hitting UK’s Mitchell Daly with a pitch in the second inning, the Dallas native retired 13 straight batters before walking Ryan Waldschmidt with one out in the sixth. A double play helped Prager escape that inning untouched. He quickly recorded two outs to start the seventh inning before a single by Ryan Nicholson broke up the no-hit bid. When next batter McCarthy doubled, Prager’s night was over after 96 pitches.

“Give their starter credit,” Mingione said. “Prager, what an outing. What a time to pitch a game like that.”

Facing elimination, Wednesday would be an opportune time for Kentucky to get its offense back in gear. The Cats played long ball at opportune times to beat North Carolina State 5-4 in its first WCS game in program history on Saturday. McCarthy, Nicholson and Daly all hit home runs. Daly’s 10th-inning blast accounted for the walk-off win.

Monday was a different story. Most fly balls died in the strong Omaha wind. Most, not all. In UK’s ninth inning, Nicholson yanked an Aggies pitch over the right-field wall for his 23rd homer of the season. It kept the Cats from being blanked.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M scored all five of its runs in the sixth inning — four coming against UK starting pitcher Mason Moore — but did so by stringing together two walks, two doubles and two singles. It was all the offense the Aggies’ needed.

There was no shortage of firepower or extra innings in the trio of games the Cats played the Gators in the Sunshine State back in May.

Kentucky won the series opener 12-11 in 10 innings on May 10. Florida responded with a 10-1 romp in the Saturday meeting. Then Kentucky took the rubber game 7-5 in 10 innings.

Nicholson hit two homers and drove in five runs and cleanup hitter Nick Lopez drove in five more in the Cats’ Friday win. Patrick Herrera drove in four runs in UK’s Sunday victory.

Leadoff hitter Ryan Waldschmidt was 3-for-6 in that Friday night game at Florida. But Kentucky’s most consistent hitter has struggled in this NCAA Tournament. He was 0-for-3 with a walk against the Aggies. In seven NCAA games, he’s 5-for-27 for a .185 batting average. He’s 0-for-7 in UK’s two CWS games and 0-for-14 over his last four games.

If the Cats are going to win three games over the next three days, it’ll need “Waldy” to get hot.

“We just reminded the guys that the last five years, no team has swept its way to the national championship,” Mingione said. “All five lost one game.”

The bad news is one more loss ends Kentucky’s special season. The good news is the Cats aren’t likely to face a pitcher as good as the one it faced Monday.

College World Series

Friday through June 24 at Omaha, Nebraska.

FRIDAY:

Game 1: North Carolina 3, Virginia 2

Game 2: Tennessee 12, Florida State 11

SATURDAY:

Game 3: Kentucky 5, N.C. State 4 (10 innings)

Game 4: Texas A&M 3, Florida 2

SUNDAY:

Game 5: Florida State 7, Virginia 3

Game 6: Tennessee 6, North Carolina 1

MONDAY:

Game 7: Florida 5, N.C. State 4

Game 8: Texas A&M 5, Kentucky 1

TUESDAY:

Game 9: North Carolina vs. Florida State, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

WEDNESDAY:

Game 10: Florida vs. Kentucky, 11 a.m. (ESPN)

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