March, 19, 2024

Kentucky Deals the Aces 11-3 Defeat Behind Pitre’s Big Night, as he notches 100th career hit, knocks in four runs to lead Wildcats

By Matt May

Kentucky Athletics

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Emilien Pitre notched his 100th career hit (and 101st and 102nd) in only his 93rd career game and knocked in four runs to lead No. 21 Kentucky to an 11-3 comeback victory over Evansville on a blustery Tuesday night at Kentucky Proud Park.

UK (18-3) scored 11 unanswered runs over the final five innings after falling behind 3-0 in the top of the fifth. It is the third time in the last five games the Wildcats have score 10 or more unanswered runs. The Cats next travel to Missouri for a series that begins Friday night in Columbia, Missouri.

Pitre (Repentigny, Que.) pulled a hard grounder through the infield in the first inning for his 100th hit, then added a booming double and another single later to finish the night 3-for-4 with a walk. He also stole three bases, the first UK player to do that since Cam Hill against Florida in 2021.

Pitre is hitting .378 with eight doubles, a triple, two homers and 24 RBIs in 21 games. He’s 11-for-14 stealing bases and has an 1.032 OPS.

James McCoy also drove in a pair of runs with as part of a seven-run sixth inning and Nolan McCarthy added an RBI double off the left field wall.

On the mound, freshman lefty Ben Cleaver earned the win in relief behind a solid outing from starter Drew Lafferty (4.1 innings, one run). Cleaver, Robert Hogan, Cooper Robinson and Johnny Hummel allowed just two hits and struck out six over the final four scoreless innings.

NOTES

-Kentucky now is 18-3 in 2024, 3-0 in Southeastern Conference play, 5-0 in night games and 12-2 at home.

-UK Coach Nick Mingione is in his eighth season at the helm and now owns a 234-153 career record. He needs 24 victories to become the second-winningest coach in school history. UK is 96-36 in the month of March under Coach Mingione.

-Kentucky has won 18 of its last 19 midweek contests dating to 2022.

-Kentucky scored seven runs in the sixth inning, the eighth time in the last five games UK has scored four or more runs in an inning, as well as being the 17th time it has scored four or more in an inning this season and the 191st time UK has scored four or more in an inning in Mingione era.

-UK scored 11 unanswered runs after scoring 12 unanswered on Sunday and 10 unanswered last Tuesday.

-UK stole five bases and now is 49-of-56 on the season.

-Junior OF Nolan McCarthy went 1-for-3 with two runs, two RBI and a double, his fourth multi-hit game of the season.

-Junior INF Emilien Pitre went 3-for-4 with a run, four RBIs, two steals, a double and a walk. It was his 12th multi-hit game of the season and 30th career, fifth multi-RBI game of the season and 20th of his career. He set a new career-high with four RBIs and his three steals made him the first UK player with three or more steals in a game since Cam Hill in 2021.