80 miles from Churchill Downs is Lexington, where Kentucky is hosting their own derby with the stakes of Omaha on the line.
It was apparent that University of Kentucky knew the track as they galloped all over the Oregon State University Beavers, limiting them to no runs on only one hit as the final score resulted to 10-0 in game one of Super Regionals, Saturday.
“Not the best game, obviously. Had it close early on, a couple opportunities for us to drive some runs across, but their pitcher did a great job mixing three pitches at any count as we knew he’s been doing all year,” head coach Mitch Canham said.
Trey Pooser appeared to be the stallion of the Wildcats as he toed the slab and arguably provided one of his best starts of the season against the potent Beavers offense. In seven innings of work he only allowed just one hit on eight strikeouts.
“Our deal starts and ends with our pitching and defense and he got us going good, we defended at a super high level, and offensively we thought we did a really good job against their starter, who is an amazing pitcher. Amazing,” said Kentucky and recent Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year, Nick Mingione.
This was the fewest hits the Beavers had all season, and just the second time they’ve been shutout, to keep the Beaver bats quiet is no easy task
“As we just talked about as a group, it’s a great opportunity for us to wake up after being punched and respond tomorrow,” Canham said.
Away games have become a separate entity for the Beavers as they are now 9-11 on road games as opposed to their dominant 27-2 home record. Beavers number one starter Aiden May was able to tough out five innings of work to keep his team close just allowing three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts to tag along.
“We’ve been responding all year. We’ve gone through some rough patches and we found a way to respond. Like I said earlier, what choice do we have? We don’t want this to be the last game of the season tomorrow,” May said.
The Kentucky Wildcats look to make it to Omaha for the first time in team history after a couple of close attempts in Super Regionals in 2017 and 2023. The Beavers have a chance to force a game three tomorrow at 6 p.m., streamed on ESPNU/ESPN+.
