Kentucky is just two wins away from the College World Series final. Tonight, the Bat Cats can make that quest a little easier with a win against Texas A&M.
In case you were in shock this weekend, Kentucky beat NC State 5-4 on a Mitchell Daly home run on Saturday. It was an unforgettable moment and came after a tense back-and-forth between the Cats and the Wolfpack. When Daly’s ball bounced around the Kentucky bullpen in the bottom of the ninth, it felt like destiny was in the air. What a way to close out the Cats’ first-ever College World Series game.
Tonight, Kentucky takes on Texas A&M, who beat Florida on Saturday night to move into the winner’s bracket. Although both teams are in the SEC, this is their first meeting this season. Last season, the Aggies won two of three games against the Cats in College Station. This is Texas A&M’s eighth appearance in the College World Series, but the Aggies haven’t won it all yet. Led by two-time national coach of the year Jim Schlossnagle, they will be hungry for a double-double tonight.
First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT, 7 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on ESPN. First, NC State and Florida face off in the loser’s bracket at 1 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT, also on ESPN. If Kentucky wins tonight, they will advance to Game 3 on Wednesday. If they lose, they’ll head to the loser’s bracket and play the winner of NC State and Florida on Tuesday for a chance to face Texas A&M on Wednesday.
Here is the final installment with Sunday’s results. Tennessee beat North Carolina 6-1 and Florida State beat Virginia 7-3. The Vols will face the winner of the ‘Noles and Tar Heels on Wednesday.
How to watch, listen
No. 2 Kentucky (46-14) vs. No. 3 Texas A&M (50-13)
7 p.m. ET | Monday June 17 | Charles Schwab Field
- TV: ESPN (Karl Ravech, Eduardo Perez, Kyle Peterson, Kris Budden)
- Streaming: Watch ESPN
- Home radio: British Sports Network – 630 WLAP, iHeart Radio (Darren Headrick, Keith Madison)
- Online radio: iHeart
- Live Statistics: StatBroadcast
- Game thread: KSBoard
We’ve had so many baseball stories on the site this weekend that it’s almost impossible to keep up. Click here for a list of all our stories, or simply choose your favorite from the list below:
We’ve got more baseball talk on KSBoard, which came to a head Saturday afternoon and hasn’t stopped rolling.
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The chances
Kentucky may be the No. 2 seed behind No. 3 seed Texas A&M, but Vegas favors the Aggies. Texas A&M is the favorite on FanDuel, at -136 on the moneyline. The total is set at 9.5 points, with the Aggies favored by 1.5 points. You can have Kentucky winning at +106, a bet I’ll consider once I finish this article.
Tennessee is still the favorite to win it all, at +105, followed by Texas A&M (+240) and Kentucky (+340). From there, the gap is quite huge with the rest of the field.
- Tennessee: +105
- Texas A&M: +240
- Kentucky: +340
- North Carolina: +1900
- State of Florida: +1900
- Florida: +3300
Don’t miss content from the KSR YouTube channel
KSR baseball writer Daniel Hager and videographer Steven Peake are in Omaha to capture all the action. You’ve probably read a lot of Daniel’s work on the site, but don’t miss their great video content on the KSR YouTube channel, where you’ll also find all of Kentucky Baseball’s postgame press conferences.
Since Daniel and Steven arrived Friday night, they’ve been talking about the Cats and Kentucky fans about an incredible debut in Omaha. On Saturday, they recapped Kentucky’s thrilling victory in a quick reaction, and on Sunday, Daniel and Jonathon Bruner took it a step further in a new episode of “Bat Cat Beat.”
Subscribe to the KSR YouTube channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features and exclusive content.
KSR’s trip to Omaha for the College World Series is presented by Summit Insurance Group, a veteran-owned family business. We want to introduce you Steve Terrellwho is there to help you and give you advice.
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CWS Shooting Challenge Update
Go away, Tennessee. The Volunteers’ lead in the Rocco’s Shot Challenge grew further on Sunday. As of last night, the Vols had purchased 8,556 jello shots, almost double the number of Texas A&M (4,737) and Kentucky (4,509) fans. It’s time for Blue to do some serious pre-gaming.
If you were offline on Father’s Day or just got on your computer this morning, you may have missed some football-related commitments. On Sunday, 3-star wide receiver Ja’Kayden Ferguson commits to Kentucky, choosing the Cats over Houston, LSU and Texas Tech, among others. This morning, 3-star cornerback Andrew Purcell did the same, choosing Kentucky over Georgia, Miami (FL) and Tennessee. Both were in town this weekend for official visits.
Ferguson is the No. 627 overall prospect in the On3 industry rankings, No. 92 among wide receivers, while Purcell comes in at No. 567 overall, No. 57 among cornerbacks. They are the eighth and ninth members of Kentucky’s 2025 class, joining four-star RB Marquise Davis, four-star S Martels Carter, four-star WR Quintin Simmons, four-star OT Darrin Strey, three-star QB Stone Saunders and Brennen Ward. , and three-star OL Tucker Kattus.
If all these rankings are just numbers for you, let’s try a visual. Ferguson can do things like this:
Needless to say, a big recruiting weekend for the program is paying off. Will the dice stay hot? Stay tuned.
Men’s basketball practices begin
Recruiting for baseball and football isn’t the only thing happening in the UK sports world. With all the Wildcats now in town, the men’s basketball team begins summer practice today. Over the next eight weeks, the team will be able to train four hours per week with an additional four hours per week for strength training, etc. The workout reports are coming in (which is another reason why you should join KSR Plus!).
This weekend, the team was able to properly meet the BBN at the Father/Son and Father/Daughter Camps on campus and at the Club Blue New Era NIL event at the Kentucky Horse Park. By all accounts, all three events were huge successes. Jack Pilgrim was at the New Era camp and event on Saturday and toured the coaches and players. Find its cover below.
On Sunday, the Pope girls took center stage at the program’s father/daughter camp, which looked like it was going to be absolutely awesome.
Game 5 of the NBA Finals
We’ll be preoccupied with baseball tonight, but Game 5 of the NBA Finals kicks off at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. Dallas made a statement in Game 4 Friday night, beating Boston 122-84 to stay alive in the series, which the Celtics lead 3-1. Tonight, the Mavs will try to do the same, but back at TD Garden.
Boston is favorite with 6.5 points. Will they wrap up tonight or will the show return to Dallas later this week? As mentioned, I’ll be too busy cheering on the Bat Cats to watch it live, but I’ll look back at some point to see if PJ Washington and the Mavs can continue the series.
Happy Monday with Myron Medcalf
It’s another Monday after a Kentucky Baseball playoff victory, which means Myron Medcalf is ready to get on the mic to break it all down. Ryan Lemond and Shannon the Dude will join Myron on a happy Monday morning to discuss Kentucky’s big win, tonight’s game, and whether or not Ryan and Shannon should start planning for the finale in Omaha this weekend .
The fun begins in an hour on WKRD or our many affiliates across the state or right now on the KSR Preshow with Shannon and Billy.