Nine Wildcats Celebrating Senior Night On Friday vs. Florida

Kentucky baseball lost its series opener to No. 4 Florida on Thursday night by a score of 10-3, as the Gators chalked up 13 hits and pulled away late.

The Wildcats are fighting for a better seed in the SEC Tournament next week, as well a chance to host a Regional in the NCAA Tournament the following week. Winning the final two games of the series would do wonders for both of those things.

UK won't have to look for energy to try and get back in the win column on Friday night, as a grand total of nine Wildcats are being honored before the game on Senior Night:

The following will participate in Senior Night and have no collegiate eligibility remaining after the 2023 season:

LHP Tyler Bosma

After three seasons at Miami Ohio, Bosma transferred to UK ahead of the 2022 season. Now in his second season at UK, he's made 13 starts in 2023, taking the ball every weekend.

He's 4-4 this season with a 5.61 ERA, having struck out 35 batters while walking 22. Across the left-hander's five-year career, he's 13-13 with a 4.91 ERA. He's thrown 207.1 innings and has 216 strikeouts.

INF Isaiah Byars

Byars transferred to Lexington from North Florida ahead of the 2023 season, but has hardly seen the field due to injury. He's played in only 11 games after winning the starting third baseman job at the beginning of the year.

He's batting .111 (3-for-27), has a double, two RBIs and has drawn two walks. He's a career .287 hitter with a .370 on-base percentage.

The senior out of Stone Mountain, Ga. began his career at Alabama before transferring to junior college, then UNF in 2021. He played 32 games for the Ospreys that season, but excelled in 2022 at shortstop, playing in 50 games, slashing .330/.387/.478, tallying 19 extra-base hits and 16 stolen bases. He batted leadoff and was named First Team All-ASUN.

RHP / Student Assistant Coach Alex Degen

Via UK Athletics — The 6-foot-8 right-hander from Hunterdon, New Jersey recently made the decision to medically retire from baseball but remain with the program as a student assistant coach.

He finished his career with a 3-1 record and one save in 32 appearances. He posted a 4.30 earned run average in three seasons and was on his way to a breakthrough season in 2020 (2.51 ERA, 19 strikeouts in 14.1 innings) when the campaign was cut short by Covid-19.

Degen has been named a member of the Southeastern Conference Community Service Team for the third time in his career. His honors at UK include:

Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, 2023
Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), 2022-23
SEC Academic Honor Roll (2022)
2021 UK Athletics Frank G. Ham Society of Character Inductee
SEC Community Service Team (2020, 2021, 2023)
SEC Academic Honor Roll (2020, 2021, 2022)
Dean’s List (Spring 2020)
First-Team All-Coastal Plain League (2019)
SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll (2019)

INF Jase Felker

Felker has blossomed in his second and final season with Kentucky after transferring from junior college in 2022. After Byars went down with his injury, Felker has manned 3B and is currently slashing .316/.445/.380.

He has 50 hits, including four doubles and three triples, 28 RBIs and 19 stolen bases. The Princeton, Ky. native has played 72 games as a Wildcat and is a career .316 hitter with an impressive .449 OBP.

RHP/INF Ryder Giles

Giles transferred to Kentucky for the 2023 campaign after playing four seasons for East Carolina as both a shortstop and pitcher. The Wildcats have kept him in the bullpen this season.

In 24 appearances for UK, he's been asked to pitch only 17.2 innings and has a 1-1 record with one save and a 4.08 ERA. He's struck out 13 and walked only four. In 102.1 career innings, he's walked 20 batters and has 90 Ks. He's recorded a save in all five seasons he's played and has a lifetime 3.96 ERA.

At the plate, he's a .218 hitter and has only one at-bat for the Cats. His freshman season at ECU saw 36 hits, 26 RBIs and 25 BBs. He hit a season-high .242 and had a .385 OBP.

1B Hunter Gilliam

Gilliam, nicknamed "Captain," has become a leader for Kentucky in his lone season after transferring from Longwood, his hometown school. In 51 games as a Cat, he's slashing .344/.434/.591 with 11 home runs and a team-high 63 RBIs.

He has 212 games of college baseball under his belt, which includes 218 hits, 39 doubles, 10 triples, 31 homers and 167 RBIs. He also owns a career .988 fielding percentage.

In four seasons at Longwood, he was named the Freshman Student Athlete of the Year in 2019, then First Team All-Big South in 2022. This season, he's been named the National Hitter of the Week and the Co-SEC Player of the Week once.

OF Jackson Gray

Gray won the starting center field job ahead of his lone season at UK and hasn't looked back. The Western Kentucky transfer owns a team-high .372 batting average to go with a whopping .529 OBP and .600 SLG.

Manning the leadoff spot in the lineup for nearly every game this year, he's tallied 14 doubles, six triples and five homers. He has 32 RBIs and 19 stolen bags. He's also played a Gold-Glove worthy CF and has made just one error in his three seasons of D1 baseball.

Gray went to WKU after playing in junior college. In two seasons at Bowling Green and one in Lexington, he has a career .321 BA and .446 OBP. He was named Second Team All-Conference USA in 2021 and is on pace to earn All-SEC honors this season.

C Chase Stanke

Another 2023 transfer, Stanke made the move to Kentucky after playing four seasons at Minnesota. He's played 27 games as a Wildcat this season, serving as the backup catcher, though most of his action has come at DH.

This season, he's hitting .200 but has a .415 OBP, thanks to 14 walks and just 16 strikeouts. He's hit three doubles and a home run — which came on his birthday at then-No. 1 LSU.

He has 16 career homers and 83 RBIs, leading to a .229 BA. Stanke has been named to the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Watch List twice.

RHP Darren Williams

The old man of the team, Williams is in his seventh and final season of college baseball, thanks to a redshirt, Covid year and a medical redshirt. The 6-foot-6 Maysville, Ky. native transferred to UK from EKU following the 2021 season.

This season he owns a 4-1 record, 4.25 ERA and has 47 strikeouts across 51.1 IP. He's played in 83 games, has pitched over 243 innings and has 262 Ks. Before elbow surgery prematurely ended his 2022 season, he had a 3-0 record with a dominant 0.93 ERA.

The 25-year-old was Second Team All-OVC in 2021 and is looking to add more to his mantle with just a few weeks remaining in his long college career.

Additionally, three Cats and two student managers will receive graduate recognition (these players have eligibility remaining should they choose to use it):

OF Kendal Ewell

Ewell is the latest to follow the EKU-UK pipeline, transferring to Lexington ahead of this season. Before the year began, he was named to the Golden Spikes Award Watch List.

He's played in only 14 games for the Wildcats this season and his hitting .189 with a .333 OBP in 37 at-bats. The Calumet City, Ill. native had a tremendous 2022 season with the Colonels, slashing .361/482/.607, slugging 14 homers and collecting 51 RBIs.

For his career, he's hitting .320 with a .431 OBP. He was named First Team All-ASUN in 2022 and was a Golden Spikes semifinalist.

RHP Zack Lee

Lee will take the mound to start on Friday night and is looking to continue a great run in his fourth season as a Wildcat. He's now 4-2 this season with a 3.42 ERA across 55.1 innings.

In four years in Lexington, Lee owns an 11-10 record, a 5.04 ERA and has 150 strikeouts — 58 of which have come this season. He will surpass his career-high for innings pitched in a season if he can throw 2.2 innings against the Gators.

Lee has earned a Co-National Player of the Week mention this season and was named a top-100 MLB draft prospect by Baseball America in 2022.

RHP Logan Martin

Martin also transferred in ahead of the 2023 campaign, though his jump was considered much different, as he came to Lexington from Division-III Sewanne. He was tabbed to be the Cats' Friday-night starter this season, but injuries have altered his year.

Martin (1-1) has made six starts for Kentucky this season and owns a 4.43 ERA across 20.1 innings. After making his first three scheduled starts to begin the season, he didn't pitch against Southern Illinois due to a non-arm related injury. He's since returned, but hasn't thrown more than 2.0 innings an outing and hasn't pitched since April 22, though he is available to face the Gators.

At Suwanne, he was the 2022 SAA Pitcher of the Year and was named D3baseball.com All-Region Second Team. He has a career 4-8 win-loss and a 3.70 ERA. He's struck out 171 batters in 129 innings.

Senior Night festivities at KPP are set to begin around 5:45 p.m. EST. The game is set to begin at 6:30 and will air on SEC Network+.