A nearly perfect night for baseball brought the Kentucky Wildcats and the Ole Miss Rebels together for game two of the three-game series, as the Rebels looked to keep the mometum from Thursday night into Friday’s matchup and earn a series win over the Wildcats. 

Coming into the series, Kentucky came to Oxford looking to carry the momentum from starting Southeastern Conference play 3-0 after sweeping Alabama last weekend at Kentucky Proud Park. Thursday night was the night when everything that could go wrong for the Wildcats went wrong, as the bats stayed quiet, and Ole Miss took advantage of a struggling Ben Cleaver. 

Friday night rolled around, and the mood around the Kentucky baseball team seemed to have shifted to erasing Thursday night, coming out in game two, and getting back to playing to the Kentucky standard. Sometimes, you can just sense a shift in batting practice before the game. Kentucky had that difference before the game on Friday night, where you just got the feeling that they might lose, but they wouldn’t go down without a major fight. 

All the pressure turned to Ole Miss after taking game one, as the Rebels entered game two looking to avoid the same mistakes from last week, when they took game one at Texas but then lost the next two. 

Starting on the mound for the Wildcats on Friday night would be Jaxson Jelkin, while the Rebels would roll with Hudson Calhoun since Cade Townsend was out injured. Calhoun didn’t do all that badly for the Rebels on Friday night, but it was the fielding that let him down, as they allowed three runs due to errors. Calhoun finished his night after 3.2 innings pitched, giving up three hits, three runs, but striking out seven Kentucky batters, and only allowing one walk. Jaxson Jelkin was the star of the show for the Wildcats on Friday night as he delivered seven complete innings, giving up one run, four hits, three walks, and six strikeouts.

Kentucky would strike first in the top half of the 4th inning with a combination of timely hitting and Ole Miss errors, taking a 3-0 lead over the Rebels. Ole Miss would cut into the Kentucky lead with a solo shot from Austin Fawley to cut the Kentucky lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the 6th inning. However, the pitching staff backed up by the Kentucky defense was too much for the Rebels on Friday night, and now a rubber match awaits. 

Kentucky did all the small things right on Friday night, no fielding errors, no careless mistakes, combined with Jaxson Jelkin having an incredible night, and the Wildcats earned the game two victory and forced the series-deciding game three on Saturday afternoon. Before the first pitch during batting practice, Kentucky seemed more focused on tying the series up, and the mental game had already been won; the Wildcats just needed to execute on the field, and they did just that. Half the battle in baseball is mental; the other is overcoming adversity and sticking to the fundamentals, and Kentucky did both on Friday night, delivering the Wildcats a massive win over the Rebels. 

Game three between Kentucky and Ole Miss is currently slated for 1:30 on Saturday afternoon. 

Photo Credits- Kentucky baseball on X