Lots of UK baseball news today, so I’m going all old school on a blog (aka, using a newspaper format). This is your UK baseball notebook. Just a reminder, first pitch for tonight’s game is at 6:30 p.m.
Carroll, Cowgill named semifinalists for national POY award
Carroll, who had six RBIs on his own in last night’s win, and Cowgill, the do-everything outfielder, have been named semifinalists for the Dick Howser trophy. The trophy is the national player of the year award given by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
The duo gives UK the honor of being only one of two teams to land two players on the semifinal list. No. 3 Arizona State is the other.
Carroll leads the SEC in batting average and RBIs (Note: Carroll is two shy of the all-time UK RBI record). Cowgill leads the SEC with 70 runs scored and leads the team with 18 home runs.
Both players are also on the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award watch list and the Brooks Wallace Award watch list–two other player of the year trophies. Only 16 players were named to the semifinalist list.
UK will Celebrate Senior Night
After hitting the 40-win mark in last night’s 12-4 win, the Cats will honor the many seniors on the roster tonight in Game 2 of the three game series. The following players are seniors:
4 OF Colin Cowgil (Henry Clay High School/ Lexington )
8 C/RHP Tyler Howe (Kirkwood CC/Clinton, Iowa)
14 LHP Andrew Albers (North Battleford, Saskatchwan)
17 INF Ryan Wilkes (Harrison, Tn.)
19 OF/1B Sawyer Carroll (Henryetta, Okla./Seminole CC)
28 RHP Brock Baber (Bath County H.S./ Sharpsburg, Ky.)
30 INF/C Brian Spear (Wichita State/Gary, Ind.)
33 RHP Aaron Lovett (Brownstown, Ill./Kaskaskia CC)
37 RHP Greg Dumbroski (Rome, N.Y.)
44 LHP Tommy Warner (Lafayette H.S./ Lexington)
Brandon Webb inching towards Record
Former UK pitcher Brandon Webb recorded his 9th win, starting the MLB season a perfect 9-for-9. The start gets Webb one win away from the best start by a pitcher since 1985–a 23-year span.
Dating back to last year, Webb has 12 wins in his last 13 starts and is currently on an 11-for-11 streak. Webb’s Diamondbacks are in first place in the NL West and hold the best record in the National League.
What you are witnessing is hopefully the first in a series of look-backs at successful Wildcats in their own professional sports. We’ll leave no stone unturned–baseball, basketball, football, maybe even hockey!–in order to give you the rundown on what’s happening with these former Wildcats.
