COLUMN: Lack of Small Ball in SEC Tournament Loss Should Serve Powerful Reminder to Kentucky

HOOVER, Ala. — Kentucky entered the SEC Tournament with 53 sacrifice bunts on the year, the fifth most in the country and easily the most in the SEC.

Small ball has been the identity of the Bat Cats for quite literally the entire 2023 season. It's been more than a calling card. UK's box scores and season-stats are more than enough to make someone like Barry Bonds vomit.

Enter the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, which possesses a field that's been both a graveyard for sluggers and Safe Haven for pitchers for years on end. It's almost as if head coach Nick Mingione built his roster for this exact week. He even touched on it following the Cats' final series of the regular season last weekend:

"That's part of the reason why we had success last year. We were able to use all the different weapons that we have and the people that we have available, so that'll definitely be in play again," he said. "Our style of play definitely fits that ballpark."

Kentucky showcased its roots when it played Alabama in Tuscaloosa back in the end of March, dropping multiple safety squeezes, swiping bags, doing the little things that propelled it to the heights that it reached over the course of the season. It found itself squaring off with the Crimson Tide once again in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Tuesday night.

Instead of squaring around and pushing its identity once more, it was instead Bama who dictated the pace and nullified almost any inkling of small ball in a 4-0 win that sends the Wildcats back to Lexington without a win in Hoover.

Jase Felker tried to drop a sacrifice bunt with a runner on second base and no outs in the top of the second, but the third baseman popped his attempt up, leading to a catch by Alabama starting pitcher Hunter Furtado. The subsequent throw sailed into the outfield and advanced the runner anyways, but it wasn't a result of the Cats' execution.

Down 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth, Ryan Waldschmidt was caught trying to steal second base after singling to lead off the frame, as Bama catcher Mac Guscette sent a bullet to the second-base bag, wiping away what could've led to a late-inning rally. That followed a heroic throw from right fielder Andrew Pinckney, who gunned down Devin Burkes tying to score on what would've been a sacrifice fly from Reuben Church — following the failed SAC-bunt attempt from Felker.

Trailing late, small ball was no longer an option. Kentucky finished the game with zero sacrifice plays, going 0-for-11 at the plate with runners on base, 1-for-8 with two outs, 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and just 2-for-12 in advancement opportunities.

Alabama head coach Jason Jackson talked postgame about Kentucky's small-ball playstyle and what the Tide did to try and revoke that from being a factor in the matchup this time around:

"We spent a lot of time working on it. We spent some time this week once we knew that's who we were playing, we spent some time trying to prepare for it. They do great job with it. They're really, really skilled in their bunt game, and they're really good at -- they had four guys with almost 20 stolen bases," Jackson said.

"We knew that going in, being able to control their action was going to be a big piece. I think trying to keep the lead-off guy off base kind of limits some of that. I think getting an early lead can kind of get some of that. Those were some things going in we tried to, hey, let's try to get out to a lead early; maybe that'll slow some of that down. Let's try to do a good job keeping the lead-off hitter off base. Usually that'll slow that down a little bit, too. So I think we were able to do some of that, but yeah, that's certainly a strength of their game and certainly something that we tried to prepare for."

Kentucky got its leadoff batter on base just twice on Tuesday. Pinckney broke a 0-0 tie with a two-run home run in the fourth inning, putting the Wildcats on the chase for the remainder of the game.

Those variables, mixed with a crimson-heavy crowd and a career start from Furtado, led to a recipe that favored the Tide seven days of the week.

"I've always had a lot of respect for them and the type of team they have this year. I think even talking to Brad (Bohannon) earlier in the year, he just said, This is the best team I've ever had here. And that's saying a lot because they've had some really good teams," Mingione said of Bama. "

"There's a couple -- when you go look and you look at the box scores, the lineup, there's a couple guys that are different, but they've always been able to pitch, they've always been able to defend, and they've always been able to score runs. So they just have a lot of guys that have a lot of SEC experience, and as you know, that's a really good thing, and it's good for them moving forward."

UK found itself shaking its head as multiple hard-hit balls fell just inches short of clearing the fence on Tuesday. The wind gave and took a couple of runs off the board for both teams, but that 405-foot marker in center field can't come into play if you're slapping singles and laying down bunts, can it?

Baseball isn't a sport that tells the entire story in just one game, but a team's postseason life hinges on being able to execute in the areas that you do best in. Kentucky came up empty in the small-ball department and is heading back home to Lexington after one night in Hoover because of it.

An NCAA Tournament Regional allots a pair of defeats, so let Tuesday night serve as a lesson: The old dog can't learn new tricks, yes, but he's still pretty good at the one he's been doing his whole life. It's likely best to stick with the tried and true.

The SEC Tournament bracket can be found HERE.

Looking back at UK's series win over Alabama back in March HERE.

Where Kentucky stands in the rankings entering the postseason HERE.

Latest Field of 64 Projections HERE.

Two Wildcats earn All-SEC honors. More HERE.