Monday Headlines: Kentucky Baseball Season Ends

NCAA BASEBALL: JUN 01 Division I Regional - Kentucky vs West Virginia — Photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

UK falls well short of returning to the College World Series.

Kentucky baseball is headed home after the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

The Wildcats lost their regional-opening game to West Virginia (3-4) and were forced to play an elimination game against USC Upstate on Saturday, which they won (7-3) to remain alive.

On Sunday, Kentucky’s backs were still against the wall as they faced Clemson but made quick work of the Tigers (16-4) to face West Virginia for the right to advance.

It looked like all signs were pointing to Head coach Nick Mingione and his team advancing to the Super Regionals with the team holding a 12-7 lead entering the eighth inning.

However, multiple Kentucky pitchers gave up a total of six runs in the eighth inning and the Wildcats suddenly found themselves trailing with only three outs left to at least find the tying run.

Kentucky managed to put a runner on base but went no further with their bats, falling to WVU (13-12) and coming up short of advancing to the Super Regional.

The Wildcats finish the season with a 31-26 record (13-17 in Southeastern Conference play) and 2-3 total record (0-1 in SEC, 2-2 in NCAA) in postseason play.