Kentucky Reliever Seth Chavez 'Day-to-Day'; Starter Logan Martin 'Building Back' Length
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky will have its hands full, and then some as it travels to Baton Rouge for a series against No. 1 LSU this weekend at Alex Box Stadium.
The Bat Cats are coming off their first series loss of the season, dropping both games of a doubleheader to Georgia on Sunday in Athens. It's the first losing streak of the season for the 12th-ranked team that's continued to surprise the college baseball world now halfway through the 2023 season.
While it goes without saying, the road ahead to get to Hoover for the SEC Tournament isn't getting any easier from here on out. It all starts with the Tigers, who possess a .328 team batting average, the fifth-best in the nation, as well as the top hitter in the nation in outfielder Dylan Crews, who's hitting .510 through 31 games.
It'll be all hands on deck for the Kentucky pitching staff, which is hoping to be at full strength when it boards the plane to head toward the bayou on Wednesday. In the second loss to Georgia on Sunday, right-handed relief pitcher Seth Chavez exited the game in the sixth inning after giving up a pair of home runs and a single.
Following the last pitch he threw, the ETSU transfer immediately took off his glove, grabbed at his throwing arm and motioned to the Kentucky dugout. Trainers came to the mound, then walked off the field with the righty.
When speaking with reporters on Monday, Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione provided an update on the status of the reliever, not ruling him out from appearing this weekend against LSU:
"He'll be day to day and we'll just see how he feels," Mingione said. "If he didn't throw this week, I could see that, and if he did throw, maybe it would be towards the end of the week. Just kind of a wait-and-see and, you know, anytime you deal with stuff like that — with the arm or any part of the body, it kind of goes day-by-day and we'll have a lot better feel later in the week."
The 6-foot-4 senior sat out the entire 2022 season due to an arm injury that led to surgery. He's made 10 appearances as a Wildcat, totaling 9.0 innings, allowing four earned runs on eight hits. Chavez has struck out 13 batters and walked five, owning a 2-1 record with one save.
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While Chavez looks to avoid any time on the shelf, senior Division-III transfer Logan Martin is continuously working his way back to full strength. The Mayfield, Ky. native transferred to Kentucky from Sewanee and was eventually tabbed as the Friday-night starter.
After making his first three scheduled starts of the season, Martin missed a pair of weekend series — at Southern Illinois and the SEC opener against Mississippi State — due to a non-arm related injury. He has made two starts since, pitching a pair of innings against both Alabama and last weekend at Georgia. He didn't allow a hit in all four innings, throwing 34 and 37 pitches in each outing, respectively.
He threw around 80 pitches in his first trio of outings, highlighted by six innings against Wright State on Feb. 24 that saw three earned runs on four hits, eight strikeouts and two walks.
While Mingione would love to stretch Martin out this weekend, he knows that recovery and treating injuries must be done delicately.
"Just go day-by-day with him. Obviously you guys know this, but our players health is really important to us, you know, so we want to make sure that the weather's right, he's recovering right, and all that, and as long as he is, we'll just keep moving him forward," Mingione said. "I think there's no question, you know, his innings are really important, and he can help shorten the game for us. So the plan for us now is just to keep throwing him every week and just keep building him back into where we can get him out there for as long as possible."
Seventh-year senior RHP Darren Williams has piggybacked Martin this season or taken his place as the Friday-night starter when he's unable to go. He's thrown at least three innings in all eight of his appearances so far this season, throwing at least four in all four of his outings in SEC play.
First pitch between No. 12 Kentucky and No. 1 LSU on Thursday, April 13 is set for 7 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
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