On a beautiful night in the Bluegrass state, the Kentucky Wildcats welcomed the 17th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners to Kentucky Proud Park for game one of the three-game series.

Needing to win three out of the next six games to be guaranteed an at-large Regional bid, the series with the Sooners of Oklahoma was about as big as it comes for the Wildcats. Kentucky would be against the Oklahoma Friday night ace in Kyson Witherspoon. Witherspoon came into the matchup with an ERA of 2.12. For Kentucky, the Wildcats would turn to Nate Harris with an ERA of 3.63.

Nate Harris delivered Kentucky’s 4.2 innings, giving up five hits and three runs while striking out two. On the other side, Kyson Witherspoon gave the Sooners five complete innings while giving up six hits and four runs with four strikeouts.

Oklahoma jumped out to an early 2-0 lead over Kentucky in the top half of the 3rd inning before Kentucky responded with a four-run bottom half to take a 4-2 lead over the Sooners. Oklahoma would add another run in the top half of the 5th to make it 4-3 Kentucky.

All Kentucky needed to secure the game-one victory over Oklahoma was the four runs scored in the third inning. After last week’s debacle against Western Kentucky in the midweek and on the road at Mississippi State, where the Wildcats went 0-4 against the combination of those two, a 4-3 win over the Sooners of Oklahoma might be the shot in the arm that Coach Mingione and his Wildcats need to win two more games to secure an at-large NCAA Regional bid as they try to make another run at the College World Series for the second time in school history. A win over the Sooners on Saturday would give the Wildcats a massive series win over the 17th-ranked team in the country as they move one step closer to securing an at-large bid to the Regionals.

Game two between the Wildcats and Sooners will begin on Saturday, with the first pitch slated for 12:30 p.m. Eastern on the SEC Network.

Photo Credits – Jake Nichols