LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the first time in baseball program history, Kentucky will host an NCAA Super Regional, welcoming in No. 15 seed Oregon State to Lexington. The second-seeded Wildcats and the Beavers will play a best two-of-three series starting on Saturday, June 8, with each team two wins away from punching its ticket to the NCAA Men’s College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Saturday’s series opener will start at 6 p.m. ET/3 PT, while game two is set to begin at 9 p.m./6 p.m. on Sunday, June 9. Both games will be televised on ESPNU. If necessary, game three will be played on Monday, June 10 at a time to be determined.
The Cats will be seeking their first-ever trip to the Men’s College World Series in their third-ever trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky is 0-4 all time in the Super Regional round, dropping a pair of games at Louisville in 2017 and at LSU last season. However, Kentucky has been as close as one win away from the MCWS. In 1988, prior to the introduction of the Super Regional round, the Cats defeated Rutgers, St. John’s, and Clemson to advance to the final of the Northeast Regional, only needing one win in two tries to advance to Omaha, but Kentucky fell twice to eventual national champion Stanford and fell short of Omaha.
Kentucky (43-14, 22-8 SEC) advanced to the Lexington Super Regional by sweeping through Western Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana State in the regional round last weekend. Ryan Nicholson, Most Outstanding Player of the Lexington Regional, led the way with two crucial home runs in the final two games of the weekend, while six other Wildcats were named to the All-Tournament team. Trey Pooser and Mason Moore led the way on the mound, as Pooser shoved 7.0 innings of one-run baseball against the Illini, while Moore tossed six shutout innings in the regional final against the Sycamores. Moore has yet to allow a run in his NCAA Tournament career, tossing 20.1 scoreless innings over the past two seasons.
Oregon State (45-14, 19-10 PAC-12) comes to Lexington after sweeping through the Corvallis Regional, taking down Tulane in the opening round before defeating UC Irvine in a pair of games to advance. A consensus top-ten team, the Beavers make the cross-country journey with one of the best players in the nation at their side. 2B Travis Bazzana, the final PAC-12 Player of the Year and a Golden Spikes Award Finalist, has led the Beavers this season, hitting .415, with 28 home runs, and 65 RBI. Bazzana is fifth in the nation in batting average and sixth in home runs.
However, Bazzana is not the only contributor to a potent Beaver offense that is hitting .303 as a team with a program-record 115 home runs. Oregon State ranks third in the NCAA in walks, seventh in slugging percentage, and eighth in on base percentage. DH Gavin Turley leads OSU with 75 RBI, while CF Micah McDowell and LF Dallas Macias boast batting averages of .403 and .325, respectively. The Beavers also boast one of the best pitching staffs in the nation, ranking seventh in team ERA at 3.98. OSU’s one-two punch on the mound features RHP Aiden May and RHP Jacob Kmatz. May leads the team with a 7-0 record alongside his impressive 2.88 ERA, while Kmatz is not far behind at 7-2 and 3.29.
Oregon State has been excellent at home this season, holding a 27-2 record, but is only 9-10 in true road contests. OSU also boasts an impressive postseason pedigree, highlighted by their three national championships in 2006, 2007, and 2018. The Beavers have 23 all-time tournament appearances, including bids in seven straight tournaments and 17 of the last 19. This is OSU’s ninth super regional, with the Beavers advancing to Omaha in six of their previous eight trips to the second weekend.
Kentucky and Oregon State have never met. The Wildcats and the Beavers share two common opponents this season: Arkansas and Washington State. Kentucky defeated Arkansas, two games to one, in a three-game series in Lexington and also took down the Razorbacks in Hoover at the SEC Tournament, while Oregon State dropped a 14-inning contest at an early-season tournament in Arlington, Tex. Conversely, Kentucky fell to Washington State at the Karbach Round Rock Classic while Oregon State took two of three games against the Cougars in Pullman.
GAME DETAILS
Saturday, June 8
[2] No. 2 Kentucky vs. [15] No. 7 Oregon State
6 p.m. ET/3 PT; Lexington, Ky. (Kentucky Proud Park)
Radio: UK Sports Network | Television: ESPNU
UK – TBA; OSU – TBA
Sunday, June 9
[2] No. 2 Kentucky vs. [15] No. 7 Oregon State
9 p.m. ET/6 PT; Lexington, Ky. (Kentucky Proud Park)
Radio: UK Sports Network | Television: ESPNU
UK – TBA; OSU – TBA
Monday, June 10 (if necessary)
[2] No. 2 Kentucky vs. [15] No. 7 Oregon State
TBD; Lexington, Ky. (Kentucky Proud Park)
Radio: UK Sports Network | Television: TBD
UK – TBA; OSU – TBA
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