No. 16 Kentucky dodged threats all afternoon to defeat No. 25 Missouri 3-1 on Sunday in entrance of two,646 followers at Kentucky Proud Park to comb the Tigers and safe the most effective Southeastern Convention begin (8-1) at school historical past.
Seth Chavez induced a mile-high foul popup behind dwelling plate with the bases loaded to shut out his first save in blue and transfer the Wildcats to 25-3 on the season. The win was not with out drama although, as Missouri left 16 runners on base within the recreation and each first baseman Hunter Gilliam and centerfielder Jackson Grey made run-saving defensive performs within the late innings.
Gilliam, who singled in his first at bat to run his hit streak to 21 video games, the third-longest at UK since 2005, dove to his left to snare a sizzling shot down the primary final analysis, holding two runs from scoring. Grey made a diving seize in heart and likewise threw out a runner attempting to go first to 3rd.
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Relievers Jackson Nove, Mason Moore, Zach Hise, Ryan Hagenow and Chavez every made vital pitches as Mizzou didn’t rating over the ultimate 4 innings.
NOTES
Kentucky is 32-6 over its final 38 video games relationship to final season.
UK is 17-7 in its final 24 video games vs. SEC opponents.
UK now has 17 wins vs. the RPI Prime 100 and 10 vs. the Prime 50.
The final time UK gained its first three SEC collection was 2017, Mingione’s first season.
The 8-1 begin to SEC play is the most effective at school historical past.
UK Coach Nick Mingione is in his seventh season on the helm and now owns a 201-132 profession document.
UK is 44-44 within the month of April underneath Coach Mingione.
Mingione is 11-7 vs. Missouri.
Mingione is 89-43 at Kentucky Proud Park.
UK has scored in 327 of 333 video games underneath Coach Mingione.
The Cats stole one base and now are 54-of-68 on the season.
UK pitchers have held opponents to 3 or fewer runs in 20 of 28 video games.
UK has had a distinct profitable pitcher in every of its eight SEC victories.
Kentucky stranded 16 Missouri runners on base.
UK allowed three runs within the collection.
It’s the fewest in an SEC collection within the 21st
1996, it gave up 4 to Ole Miss.
First Baseman Hunter Gilliam ran his hit streak to 21 video games and he now has reached safely in all 27 video games by which he’s performed.
The streak is the tied for the second-longest at UK since 2005.
He made a diving cease and tag to finish a scoring menace.
Catcher Devin Burkes has reached safely in 17 consecutive video games.
Outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt has reached base safely in 16 straight video games.
Outfielder Jackson Grey has reached safely in 19 consecutive video games.
He has been hit by 15 pitches this season.
He legged out two infield hits and made an exceptional catch of a sinking liner.
Infielder Grant Smith has began all 144 video games of his collegiate profession.
He has reached in 16 straight video games.
Pitcher Seth Chavez picked up his first save in a Kentucky uniform.
ON DECK
Kentucky will host Dayton at 6:30 ET on Tuesday. Will probably be streamed on SECN+. The radio name might be on the UK Sports activities Community (630 AM WLAP, domestically).
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Mason Nicholson’s 20 points helped Jacksonville State defeat Western Kentucky 73-67 on Thursday night.
Nicholson also contributed 12 rebounds and three blocks for the Gamecocks (9-6, 1-1 Conference USA). Quel’Ron House scored 14 points and added nine rebounds and seven assists. Jaron Pierre Jr. went 5 of 18 from the field (1 for 7 from 3-point range) to finish with 12 points.
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Enoch Kalambay finished with 24 points for the Hilltoppers (10-6, 1-2). Julius Thedford added 17 points.
House scored eight points in the first half and Jacksonville State went into halftime trailing 27-24. Nicholson scored 14 second-half points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Kentucky’s loss to Georgia felt like deja vu in that the issues that plagued the Cats vs. Ohio State and Clemson came roaring back. Once again, Kentucky let a physical team bully them around, turned the ball over too often, and didn’t create enough shots. Even though it feels like the blueprint to beat Kentucky is laminated after Tuesday night, Mark Pope believes all of those issues are fixable, even in the short term.
“Listen, it’s not triage where we have a bad team,” Pope said today. “We have a really good team. We didn’t play particularly well and so there’s a lot of things that were a little bit anomalous, where we just didn’t play great. And certainly, Georgia had some contribution to that.”
Ahead of his team’s trip to No. 14 Mississippi State, which is even more physical and talented than Georgia, Pope outlined two areas of focus: rebounding and ball protection. Georgia outrebounded Kentucky 41-34 on Tuesday, the fourth game in a row the Cats have lost the battle of the boards. On Saturday, they’ll face a Mississippi State team that ranks just outside the top 30 nationally in offensive rebounding rate (35.9%).
“We’re continuing to work on the glass right now. That’s been something interesting because we had been one of the top defensive rebounding percentage teams in the country, and that’s kind of bit us, a little bit. And so we’re rethinking some approaches there that hopefully will see immediate progress on, because we’ve been really good, right? We’ve just got to be good in this league right now, with the physicality and the way this is being played.”
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Pope seemed less concerned about the 14 turnovers the Cats committed vs. Georgia. Kentucky still ranks No. 3 in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.94), but that number would be a lot higher if not for their losses.
“We’ve been really good in terms of ball protection. I think we’ve been number one in the country. I think we’re close so I don’t think it’s reinventing the wheel for us on the ball protection side. We just didn’t do it well in this game.”
“So, there are certainly areas that we’re going to continue to grow and fine-tune, but there’s not a lot of total restructuring going on.”
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All season, Pope has talked about the importance of getting his guys not to default to bad habits. The Georgia loss showed that’s still a work in progress. After the game, Pope talked about how distracted his guys seemed on the floor, whether it be from the crowd, the whistles, a shot not going in, etc. Getting them to tune that out and lock in on each other will be what determines how far they go this season.
“Our guys trust and believe in each other, but when you start talking about trust and belief in where you go for answers, that’s a process that everybody is trying to find. It’s not a matter of not being able to find it. I mean, our guys have found it a lot this season. Like there’s been a whole lot of trust and faith on this team, where we’ve gone to the well, the right well, to find answers in the biggest games that have been played all season, right? But being able to get there every single time is part of the challenge, right? At the end of the year, it’s, can you get there six straight games? Can you go to the right space with all the different distractions, different vibes? Can you keep going right to the same place and keep trusting over and over and over again?
“And so that’s kind of the space we’re living in right now, is, how consistently can we be in the right spot on the floor? How consistently can our faith be placed in the right space? How consistently can we tune out all the distractions that happen around the game and kind of be locked in just to the moment? We’re fully capable. We’ve done it. We’ve done it at the highest level. We’ve done it pretty consistently. But now can we do it every time?”
When it comes to being more physical, Pope said that’s something everyone in the SEC is striving for right now. He just wants his team to understand how to do it and when to do it.
“The game always gets more and more physical in the league, and so our guys understanding — and there’s also a part of understanding where you can be really, really physical and where you can’t, right? And that’s part of our determinations. There are a lot of facets to that. One is just the physics aspect of it, of having a low center of gravity and kind of being the hit-first guy and a first hit and second, there’s all the schematics and the skill of it.
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“And then there’s also the mentality of it, and the IQ of it. The mentality of it is kind of this aggression side of it where you’re always thinking about contact, contact, contact, and then the IQ of it is understanding when and where it’s appropriate and where it can be utilized and where it’s important.”
COVINGTON, Ky. ‒ Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced Thursday a $110 million settlement with Cincinnati-based Kroger in his lawsuit against the grocer for its role in the opioid crisis.
Speaking at a press conference event at the Life Learning Center across the Ohio River from Cincinnati in Northern Kentucky, Coleman said Kroger fueled the opioid epidemic by prescribing the drugs with “shockingly” little oversight or means of reporting suspicious activity.
“(They) allowed the fire of addiction to spread,” Coleman said.
Kroger did not have an immediate response.
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Why Kentucky sued Kroger
His office said the agreement is one of the largest opioid settlements in recent Kentucky history and ends one of his major lawsuits launched in 2024.
Last year, Coleman sued Kroger and pharmacy benefits managers Express Scripts and Optum Rx in separate lawsuits for their roles in Kentucky’s opioid epidemic.
Kroger is a $150 billion retailer with a pharmacy business that accounts for $14.3 billion of its annual revenues. Express Scripts is a subsidiary of Connecticutt-based health company Cigna Group. Optum is part of Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group.
Coleman, a Republican, took office last year after being elected in 2023.
