Kentucky Sports Radio

Photo from UK athletics during Friday night's 21 inning marathon

Purdue got on the board first this afternoon, scoring two in the first, and held a 2-0 lead over Kentucky through three innings. In the top of the fourth, however, UK’s bats came alive for a big four-run inning that was sparked by a misplayed fly ball by the Purdue center fielder. The ball looked like it was lost in the sun and hit right off the glove of Purdue center fielder Tyler Spillner. After the error to start the inning, Luke Maile singled, and Michael Williams hit a productive ground ball out which moved two runners into scoring position. Cameron Flynn then came up and singled, scoring both runs, to tie up the game at two. The Cats were still not done in the 4th though. Zac Zellers came up next and hit a line drive deep to left field for a double, scoring Flynn and giving UK a 3-2 lead. The Cats would add one more run in the 4th off of an infield single up the middle by Matt Reida to claim a 4-2 lead.

Since giving up two runs in the 1st, Littrell settled down to pitch six dominating shutout innings and stayed in the game until after recording one out and giving up one run in the eighth inning. Now with a 5-3 lead, Alex Phillips came on in relief for the Cats, who was supposed to start in tonight’s second game. Phillips threw the final 1.2 innings to close out the game and seal the victory for Kentucky. UK added an insurance run off of a SAC fly in the top of the 9th and ended up winning by a final of 6-3 to eliminate Purdue and move on to tonight’s game. The win marks the 45th win of the season for Kentucky, which sets a new school record.

Now the question is, who starts on the mound at 8:00? Head Coach Gary Henderson just admitted about 20 minutes ago that he still had not decided on a starter. Stick around on the site for live updates of tonight’s game vs. Kent State and follow us on Twitter @wilmhoffKSR and @mulloyKSR. There is no TV for tonight’s game. If UK wins, it sets up another game against Kent State to decide the regional champion tomorrow night. If they lose, it’s over.

#SurviveGary