The No. 2 Texas Longhorns have their eyes set on another road trip east, travelling to Lexington, Kentucky to face the Kentucky, Wildcats this weekend.
Texas has fared well on the road this season, sweeping both Mississippi State and Missouri for a undefeated 6–0 away record.
Making a run at the 2024 College World Series, the Wildcats began the year ranked, teetering around the 20s, but have since dropped out of the polls after a dozen losses littering their schedule.
The Daily Texan talked to the Kentucky Kernel’s assistant sports editor, Jonathon Bruner, to get his perspective on the upcoming series between the two teams.
One of the highlights this season for the Wildcats has been on the mound. Bruner highlighted sophomore pitcher Ben Cleaver, rising from injury during his first campaign to becoming a regular for crucial weekend series this season.
“The biggest success story for me has been Ben Cleaver. (He) has made a huge jump this season into the weekend rotation,” Bruner said. “There’s a lot of question marks around the team throughout the whole season, but he has been one of the most consistent pieces that has just consistently shown up at all times.”
Cleaver has been an ace for the Wildcats when he is commanding the hill. The young pitcher has been a strikeout machine — in his eight appearances, Cleaver ranks ninth on the Southeastern Conference’s strikeout list with 53 on the year. Facing No. 3 Georgia on the road and No. 16 Auburn at home in March, Cleaver was the only Wildcat to notch wins versus the Bulldogs and the Tigers as Kentucky fell in both series.
The Wildcats have been resilient all season, going down the wire keeping games close and forcing five extra-inning games, with three of them coming in the past two weeks.
“Something that’s impressed me is the offense has played really well in conference play, especially getting off to quick starts,” Bruner said. “That’s been something that’s been really impressive … they face some good arms and then kind of knock them out of the game. It’s more so than late game struggles that has really been their kryptonite, more so than than the early part of the games.”
Down the stretch, Kentucky has struggled to close games out. Bruner cites a lack of a definite closer to fill that role for this season.
“Once the kind of seventh, eighth, ninth rolls around, it’s a little more questionable. And you’re just kind of throwing someone out there and just kind of praying almost,” Bruner said. “(They) don’t really have a defined, definite closer who can come in and nail something down.”
All the blame should not be placed on the late game pitching. While the hitting has been able to keep games close, it has also faltered to put the Wildcats on top.
“Sometimes the situational hitting has been a little bit rough in those late game spots where the approach kind of goes out the window,” Bruner said. “There’s been times where they’ve had the winning run on third with one out and can’t bring them in. It’s been a lot of situations like that where they’ve kind of learned the hard way that the margin of victory in the SEC is so slim and you have to come through when you have those opportunities.”
Assessing Kentucky’s fate for their looming series with the No. 2 team in the country, Bruner was honest. Holding out for another lockdown performance by Cleaver and jumping out early, he believes Texas will take its fifth SEC series victory this weekend.
“I could easily see a Texas sweep. I think Kentucky has done a really good job of competing against every team they played in the SEC, no matter how good they are,” Bruner said. “Some of these games might be surprisingly competitive, but I do think kind of the late game woes will continue if the game is close. So I do think Texas takes the series.”
