Joe Rodriguez had a solid outing on the mound for the Sycamores, as he allowed just three earned runs on five hits in six innings of work in his second start of the season.  Reliever Matt Shelton (2-1) came into the game with two outs in the eighth inning and pitched the ninth, but suffered the loss after surrendering the game-winning grand slam.  UK reliever Clint Tilford (1-1) picked up the win for the Wildcats, as he allowed just two hits and struck out three in five innings of scoreless relief.

“We did not play well on Friday or Saturday,” head coach Lindsay Meggs said.  “We didn't drive in runs when we had a chance to and didn't play solid defense.  For the better part of six innings today, I thought we corrected those things and picked up some timely hits.   But, in the last three innings we imploded defensively and beat ourselves out there.  I give them credit for beating us the first two days, but we handed them the win today.”

Indiana State jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first inning by scoring four runs on three hits and an error in the inning.  Kyle Burnam led off the game by reaching on an error, but was put out at second base when Ryan Strausborger reached base on a fielder's chose.  Strausborger then stole second and advanced to third on a fly out by Nick Ciolli.  With two outs in the inning, Brady Shoemaker ripped a double to right field to score Strausborger from third for the first run of the inning. 

Brian Jett kept the inning going by getting hit by a pitch and then Luke Fieser loaded the bases with a two-out walk.  Brian Ramirez then singled to score Shoemaker and Jett for two more runs and Lafrenz brought in Fieser for the fourth and final run of the frame to put the Sycamores up early in the game,

Kentucky answered back with a run of its own on a Chad Wright RBI single in the bottom of the inning to make the score 4-1.  The score would stay there until the top of the fourth inning, when the Sycamores put two more runs on the scoreboard.  Bronco Lafrenz led off the inning with a home run, his first of the season, to make the score 5-1 in favor of ISU.  Later in the inning Ben Ferrell scored from third base on a RBI sacrifice fly by Ciolli to left field to make the score 6-1.

The Wildcats pushed two runs across the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning on a Chris Bisson RBI double to cut the ISU lead to 6-3.  After a scoreless top half of the eighth inning for the Sycamores, UK tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to just one run headed to the ninth inning.

Shoemaker singled in the top of the ninth inning for ISU, but they could not push a run across and the lead stayed at one run headed to the bottom of the inning.  With two runners on and two outs in the inning, Shelton gave up a single to Chris McClendon to load the bases for Wade, who sent the ball over the left field wall for the walk-off win for the Wildcats to secure the series sweep.

“One of the reasons I took the team to play in a difficult environment and against a good team in Kentucky was to see who we are as a team,” Meggs said.  “We found out some things about ourselves this weekend, one of them being we have to play with more toughness.  We will continue to prepare for another good test next weekend and try to get some of that toughness back.”

Shoemaker led the way for ISU with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate with a RBI and run scored.  Lafrenz also had a solid day, as he finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and the home run.  Indiana State returns to action on Friday, March 12, when it travels to Memphis, Tenn., to take on the Memphis Tigers for the first of three games.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST at USA Stadium.