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Maile Named SEC Play of the Week
Photo by Regina Rickert
Junior Luke Maile has been named the SEC Player of the Week for the second time this season. The Covington Catholic product hit .462 (6-13) and launched his SEC leading 10th and 11th homeruns in route to a five RBI week. This is the third time a Wildcat has won the Player of the Week award this year, as Zac Zellers picked up the honor in the second week of the season.
SEC Standings
Kentucky took the outright SEC lead by one game with a series win against LSU. The Cats maintained their two game lead in the Eastern Division over Florida who took two out of three games from Georgia while South Carolina gained a game in the standings with a sweep of Auburn. The Cats next SEC opponent will be at Vanderbilt this weekend.
Polls
Collegiate Baseball- 1 (tie with Baylor)
Baseball America- 2
USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ Poll- 3
Florida State’s sweep of Miami (The U) was enough to keep them ahead of the Wildcats is most polls. The Seminoles are 33-7 overall and 19-2 in the second best baseball conference. I was very surprised to see Florida placed ahead of UK in the coaches’ poll. The Gators have lost two SEC series, LSU and Ole Miss, both of which UK has series wins over. Florida is a very good team and consensus top team to begin the season but the SEC standings show that the Cats are two games better. Florida will visit Lexington in two weeks for a three game set, the first of which will be nationally televised on ESPNU.
Coach Henderson’s Monday Press Conference
The biggest news of the afternoon was Henderson announcing that freshman Sam Mahar will get the start against the Cardinals tomorrow night. Mahar made the most of his first career start against Cincinnati last week, throwing six innings of two hit ball in a 7-0 win.
The depth and the freshness of the bullpen
“When you get to the end of the college baseball season a lot of time you’ve got solid guys down their in the bullpen that are working on fumes.” We’ve been really fortunate to have some options down there”
The Wildcat bullpen has been a huge factor is the team’s success as Henderson can turn to at least six different guys in any given situation.
Trevor Gott
One topic that has come up the last couple of days has been closer Trevor Gott, who did not appear in the LSU series. Henderson reiterated his support for Gott saying, ”Trevor has been outstanding all year.” Henderson explaned yesterday and today that he stuck with Alex Phillips in the last game against LSU because he liked the match up and how Phillips was pitching. I would expect to see Gott get some work tomorrow night at Louisville.
Check back tomorrow as I will have much more coverage of the rematch against the Cardinals.
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April 23rd, 2012 at 8:03 pm
David,
You have to think the rest of the schedule sets up well for us
@ Vanderbilt and a possible sweep
Florida here with at least the series
Alabama here and another possible sweep
@ Mississippi State with at least the series – never like playing former coaches on the road
We are already past the toughest part of the schedule in sweeping South Carolina and surviving the Georgia, Ole Miss, Arkansas, and LSU stretch
I was surprised by both Florida and Florida State getting the love considering the Gators swept Florida State, and they are behind both UK and LSU in the conference. I at least understand Baylor getting the love with the streak they are on.
April 23rd, 2012 at 10:02 pm
You are right about the rest of the schedule. 3 of the next 4 SEC foes have losing conference records (Vandy, Bama, Miss St.) It’s very hard to sweep in the SEC so I wouldn’t expect it but it would great if they did.
Unless something disastrous happens in the next month they will be hosting a regional and if they stay on pace, a super regional.
April 23rd, 2012 at 10:05 pm
I am actually shocked that UK wasn’t a unanimous #1 in every poll. 14 of their last 16 opponents have been ranked. That is crazy- what else do you have to do to prove you have been the best team all season long? I will admit they don’t have the best talent, but who could doubt they have the best TEAM this season from what we’ve seen all year?
April 24th, 2012 at 11:23 am
John, there is a bias to the ACC and FSU followed by a love of all things Gators in baseball. I think it irritates the voters that each week they pick us to lose, and each week we just keep winning. Don’t look for us to be #1 even if we beat UofL and sweep Vandy. FSU should sweep Rhode Island, the Gators play 5 including a series at home with Arkansas, and Baylor could win the rest of their games till they meet the Longhorns in their season finale series. If UK takes the series the following week against the Gators, we at least should move ahead of them. The Gators swept FSU, so you think FSU would be behind Florida, but so far the voters have overlooked that simple fact. (insert angry face here)