Kentucky Baseball Set to Face Unique Arm — Mississippi State's BHP Jurrangelo Cijntje
Kentucky baseball is cooking with gas heading into the first of 10 series against Southeastern Conference foes in the 2023 season.
The Bat Cats are 15-2 and winners of 11 games in a row, the longest single-season streak under head coach Nick Mingione. UK has won tight-knit affairs, but it has also drubbed its fair share of opponents, having scored 40 runs in its last three games.
Pitching has also paved the way, as the Wildcats' pitching staff is currently No. 12 in the nation in team earned run average. It's made life easy for the bats, but so has mediocre pitching coming out of the other bullpen.
A pitcher has thrown more than five innings against Kentucky just one time this season. That came on opening day, when Elon ace Shea Sprague hurled six innings, allowing just four hits and no runs. The Phoenix went on to win that game 2-0, the only shutout of the season so far for UK.
Since then, nothing has phased the Wildcats. The sturdy lineup has wore down opposing staffs by working long at-bats and playing small ball. It works well against teams like Morehead State and most recently Indiana — Kentucky's first Power 5 opponent of the season — but how will it fare against the cream of the crop in college baseball?
Mississippi State (13-5) heads to Kentucky Proud Park winners of seven in a row, most recently a pair of midweek victories over Nicholls and Louisiana. There have been some struggles, though, as early-season losses to VMI and UL Monroe set a poor tone. The Bulldogs also lost a pair of games in the Frisco Classic to Ohio State and Oklahoma.
There is one player that's taking the college baseball world by storm, though, and he'll be in Lexington trying to end Kentucky's hot streak on Friday night.
Jurrangelo Cijntje isn't just a pitcher. The 5-foot-11, 170-pound freshman out of Pembroke Pines, Fla. is a switch-pitcher. Naturally a hard-throwing left-hander, the Curacao native picked up throwing from the right side at a young age. Turns out, he was pretty good at chucking heaters with that arm, too.
Upon first glance, you may be quick to write it off as some sort of stunt, but don't be fooled. Cijntje is eye-popping regardless of which hand is releasing the baseball. In four appearances (three starts), he's pitched 15 innings and allowed just one run on five hits, all of which have been singles. Cijntje has 20 strikeouts, eight of which came in last outing against Lipscomb, though he also walked five across a season-high six IP.
Following Kentucky's 12-2 win over Indiana on Tuesday afternoon, Mingione acknowledged that facing someone like Cijntje will be a brand new experience for his ball club.
"You know what, i'll have to refresh on the rules," he told Wildcats Today. "I feel like something comes out new every year. But that's a neat deal to have somebody that can do that. I've never even recruited anybody that can do it."
Red-hot first baseman Hunter Gilliam — 16 hits and 16 RBIs in his last six games — is ready for the unique opposition:
"I've never faced a switch-pitcher before, but it's gonna be super cool. I mean, that's a pretty cool thing to be able to do. But it doesn't really matter to us what arm he's throwing with, we're ready to go," he said.
Kentucky will send an imposing arm of its own to the slab in seventh-year senior Darren Williams. The veteran right-hander made his first start of the season last Friday at Southern Illinois, allowing two runs on seven hits — five of which didn't leave the infield — while striking out three Salukis.
All eyes will be on the mound as SEC play gets underway in Lexington.
"(Cijntje) will definitely pose a challenge for us, but we'll get a chance to watch plenty of video and go from there," Mingione said.
Game one between the Wildcats and Bulldogs is set for 6:30 p.m. EST and will air on SEC Network+.
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