Kentucky Baseball Welcoming Bluegrass Native Home as Evansville Returns to Lexington for Third Straight Season

Kentucky baseball is set to begin a 10-game home stand on Tuesday afternoon, hosting the Evansville Purple Aces for a one-off showdown.

It's the third season in a row that Evansville is making the trip east to Kentucky Proud Park. Its two previous trips resulted in close games, with last season's matchup coming down to the wire.

The Bat Cats won 5-4, but the game-tying run was 90 feet away. Veteran reliever Darren Williams struck out shortstop Simon Scherry with runners on the corners, avoiding what could've led to UK's second straight midweek loss.

Evansville head coach Wes Carroll is entering his 14th season at the helm, coming off of a 32-24 campaign in 2022, the most wins for the program since 2014. The Aces were selected to finish third in the Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Poll ahead of the 2023 season.

They'll now come to Lexington still searching for their first win of the year. Over the weekend, all three of Evansville's games at Troy resulted in close victories in favor of the Trojans.

Despite scoring at least seven runs in all three outings, the Aces' pitching staff was shellacked for a grand total of 37 hits and 31 runs, allowing eight or more to cross the plate a game.

The final game of the set ended 11-10 in favor of Troy, though Evansville notched six runs in the eighth inning, then two in the top of the ninth, once again leaving the tying run on third base to end the game.

Leading the charge for the Aces is a former Wildcat and Lexington native, catcher Brendan Hord. The Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School product played under UK coach Nick Mingione from 2019-2021, but appeared in just one game during that span.

Hord hit .253 and drove in 29 runs in his first season behind the dish for Evansville in 2022. Through three games this season, he's already acquired six RBIs and belted a home run on opening day.

He made his original return home last season, but went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. The 5-foot-10, 205-pounder will look for a better result on Tuesday.

Kentucky is looking to improve to 3-1 on the year, as it responded to a season-opening loss to Elon by winning the final two games of the series, allowing one run in 18 innings.

Right-hander Travis Smith is expected to start for the Wildcats. The redshirt freshman out of Walton, Ky. was listed as the No. 72 2024 overall MLB draft prospect by Perfect Game in 2022. He returned from arm surgery in the summer.

In UK's series against Elon, starters threw a combined 16 innings, allowing 10 hits and two earned runs while walking three and striking out a whopping 17 batters.

More on the series against the Phoenix HERE.

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