Kentucky Looking to Carry Momentum Into Weekend Series Against Wright State

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky baseball is set to return to the diamond this weekend, hosting the Wright State Raiders for a three-game set at Kentucky Proud Park, continuing a 10-game homestand.

The Wildcats collected a 6-3 win over Evansville during the week on Tuesday and will look to extend its three-game winning streak, beginning on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. EST.

While it may appear as just a measly early non-conference series, the Raiders carry a successful history into Lexington, one that certainly rivals anything that the Cats have accomplished in the past few seasons.

Since 1992, Wright State has won its regular season conference title 12 times, including winning the Horizon League in the last four completed seasons. Since 2000, it's made the NCAA Tournament eight times, including both the 2021 and 2022 campaigns, though it failed to make it out of its regional.

Head coach Alex Sogard — the seventh-youngest active head coach in Division I baseball — is amidst his fifth season as the Raiders' skipper. In three completed seasons, his team has compiled a 106-55 record. This season, Wright State opened the year by losing three of four games on the road at Hawaii.

(Dayton, Ohio to Manoa, Hawaii sounds like a pretty sweet trip, by the way.)

It did win its first game of the season, 8-3, however. That was thanks to junior right-hander Jake Shirk, who hurled six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and walk while striking out six Rainbow Warriors.

As a result, he was named the Horizon League Pitcher of the Week. He'll now look to follow that performance up with another gem on Friday in Lexington, as he'll toe the slab first to kick-off the series against UK's RHP Logan Martin.

Weekend probables:

Friday — UK RHP Logan Martin (0-1, 3.60 ERA) vs. WSU RHP Jake Shirk (1-0, 0.00)
Saturday — UK LHP Tyler Bosma (1-0, 0.00) vs. WSU LHP Sebastian Gongora (0-0, 0.00)
Sunday — UK RHP Zack Lee (1-0, 0.00) vs. WSU LHP Alex Theis (0-1, 47.25 ERA)

Martin suffered defeat after allowing six hits a pair of runs across five innings. Both Bosma and Lee are looking to build off of scoreless outings to open their respective seasons on the mound.

Kentucky will have a chance to right its wrongdoings against left-handers, as the Raiders will toss a pair of lefties out to start to cap off the weekend. In the Cats' opening-day 2-0 defeat to Elon, LHP Shea Sprague didn't allow a run in six innings for the Phoenix.

Theis, the Raider lefty who's tabbed for the Sunday game, managed just 1.1 innings against Hawaii last weekend, hitting three batters and allowing three hits with a walk, totaling seven earned runs. The Rainbow Warriors went on to win 16-7.

The Wright State pitching staff allowed 28 runs over the final two games, a good sign for Kentucky, if it can get into the bullpen sooner rather than later.

Six Wildcats will enter the weekend hitting over the Mendoza line, led by second baseman Émilien Pitre, who's notched seven hits in his last two games and is now hitting .412 (7-17). Catcher Devin Burkes leads all Cats with five RBIs.

Seven players started all four games at Hawaii for Wright State. Of the bunch, sophomore outfielder Andrew Patrick led the way, going 4-for-10 at the dish. He also drew a walk and was hit by a pitch twice. Redshirt freshman first baseman Parker Harrison acquired four free passes and hit a pair of doubles during the trip.

Kentucky has won eight games in a row over Wright State and leads the all-time series 13-7. All three games this weekend will be televised on the SEC Network+.

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