HOOVER, Ala. -- The Kentucky baseball team did itself a huge favor with a 2-0 win over Ole Miss to open the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The victory means the Wildcats are off on Wednesday before they retake the field on Thursday against No. 7 seed Mississippi State, which defeated No. 1 seed LSU, 3-2.

UK was swept by the Bulldogs just last weekend.

Saturday starter Jerad Grundy (4-3, 4.15 ERA) will get the call at approximately 1:30 p.m. ET. In preparation for UK's next SEC Tournament game, here are a few notes on the team:

Ole Miss win helping to alleviate pressure

By this point in the season, pressure is inevitable. Add in a four-game like the one UK was in the midst of and things are ratcheted up another notch.

"Anytime you're in competitive athletics and you got some sort of a (slump) late in the season, there's going to be some stress and internal pressure and all those things," UK head coach Gary Henderson said. "I think that's normal and you just try to do the best you can to manage it and minimize it."

Had the Cats lost again to open play in the SEC Tournament, the pressure could have gotten out of hand. Fortunately, the Wildcats put their struggles behind them with a 2-0 victory against Ole Miss on Tuesday.

"It's certainly a big win, no question, you can't minimize it," Henderson said. "If we don't win that, then you're talking about a longer losing streak and all that and the things that come with not winning."

Even so, UK's streak-busting win is not without precedent. Before a 2-1 win to salvage the finale of a series against Florida, Kentucky had lost four in a row and five of six.

"The win against the Gators was huge," Henderson said. "If you don't win that, you've extended that losing streak and who knows when you bust out of it and all the rest."

Another prolonged losing streak will mean the end to an unforgettable 2012 season, but performances like the one against the Rebels could make this year even more special.

"It was a big win and there were other big wins and hopefully we got a few more coming," Henderson said.

Cats looking to capitalize on pitching options

When Henderson sent A.J. Reed to the mound on Tuesday, he thought he would be getting four solid innings. Instead, Reed lasted 5.2 innings, combining with normal Friday starter Taylor Rogers for a shutout of Ole Miss. The benefits of their efforts could extend well beyond the victory itself.

"It's a good thing that we were able to have A.J. throw five and two-thirds," Henderson said. "Not only did it give the starters that extra day and keep us out of playing (Wednesday), but it gave (relievers) Trevor (Gott) and Tim (Peterson) and Sam (Mahar) and Alex (Phillips) a day, actually two, where they didn't have to throw. It's a big lift for us."

What exactly that lift will mean is up to the Cats.

"I know for sure is it gave us a little bit of rest and hopefully that's a really good thing for us as we move forward," Henderson said. "Even though we got the rest, we still got to go out there and perform well."

UK's off day to feature plenty of baseball

Kentucky isn't playing a game on Wednesday, but the Wildcats aren't staying away from the diamond. During the morning, the Wildcats boarded their team bus for Birmingham-Southern University for practice.

"Great day, our guys practiced well," Henderson said. "Good concentration, good energy. We've practiced well here for three days."

Afterward, the Cats headed to the ballpark to watch a game between their two potential opponents for Thursday, LSU and Mississippi State.

HOOVER, Ala. - Relying on freshmen in postseason play - unless your name is John Calipari - is a precarious position for any head coach. It's impossible to predict how they will react to the magnitude of the moment, no matter how well they played during the regular season.

As Kentucky began its run in the Southeastern Conference Tournament though, Gary Henderson found himself writing in a first-year player as both his starting pitcher and clean-up hitter. And it just so happens that A.J. Reed would occupy both roles.

Reed, who came into an SEC Tournament opener against Ole Miss with just three hits in his last 22 at-bats, would be asked to play crucial roles both ways. Henderson was confident his young lefthander would turn in a solid, if short, outing on the mound. That belief was accompanied with an awareness that Reed would need to regain his offensive form of February and March if the Wildcats were to make a run in May and June.

"I think I would have signed a contract for four innings, four zeroes," Henderson said. "I would have signed that and I'm looking at another two, three at-bats if he's not in the lineup. I really felt like it was time to get him back. His batting practice was tremendous."

There's no way Henderson could have predicted the way Reed would deliver both with his arm and his bat. Isolate Reed's performance at the plate or on the mound on Tuesday morning, and he still would have been the player of the game in a 2-0 Kentucky (42-15) victory over Ole Miss (34-23).

Reed (5-2, 2.32 ERA) did Henderson's "four innings, four zeroes" contract six outs better, tossing 5.2 scoreless innings in not only his first career postseason start, but also his first start against a conference opponent. Reed allowed five hits, striking out three while issuing just one walk in the first inning. Playing in spacious Regions Park, Reed attacked the strike zone against the Rebels and utilized a solid defense behind him, one that didn't commit an error save for a wild Reed throw on a pickoff attempt.

"I think I started the first five innings with the first pitch of the inning they swung at," Reed said. "Coming out on the first pitch of the game, they're swinging, so I know I'm going to pound the zone and let them swing at it and let my defense work."

His pitching effort, based on recent outings, shouldn't come as much of a surprise - over his last four appearances, which span 10.1 innings, he has allowed just a single earned run - but the fact that he accounted for four of UK's seven hits should. It had been exactly a month since his last extra base hit and his struggles kept him out of lineup for all three games last week at Mississippi State.

"He hadn't hit a lot here in the last 10 to 15 days...The only reason for that is he's just a freshman and he was tired and the game was beating him for a little bit and that's just part of our game," Henderson said. "It happens to guys at every level of baseball."

Reed was the only one doing the beating on Tuesday, and the primary victim was the Rebel pitching staff. He had hits in all four of his at-bats, including a fourth-inning solo home run that proved to be the only offense Kentucky would need. Reed was also in the middle the sixth-inning rally that scored the second of UK's runs, singling to move Luke Maile to third base before Cameron Flynn knocked him in.

The struggles that preceded Reed's big day were certainly frustrating for a player unaccustomed to failure. What helped pull him out of the slump was the fact that he was still able to contribute.

"I was struggling for a little bit the last couple weeks, not seeing the ball very well and going out there and having some good performances on the mound kind of gave me some confidence that my team still trusts me and everything," Reed said.

Reed wasn't the only Wildcat to get a shot of confidence either. The Cats were coming off a four-loss week that spoiled their chances at an SEC title and cost them a bye in the conference tournament. Concerns over the mental state of the team were well-founded coming into Tuesday, but they were answered succinctly.

"You come into this thing with a disappointing weekend in Starkville and they could have gone a couple of different ways, but they showed up," Henderson said. "We had two days of practice that were as good as we've had all year."

Henderson, in addition to running practices, spent plenty of time strategizing during those days off. He ultimately settled on Reed as his starter with a plan of bringing in normal Friday night starter Taylor Rogers in relief.

"I looked at it for a couple of days solid in terms of what would be the best thing for us to give us the best chance to win," Henderson said. "I really wanted (Rogers) on the mound if we had a lead in terms of I thought the ballpark and the opposition matched up well for him and I wanted a statement to our guys that we were going to run our Friday-night guy out there to win."

After the way Rogers threw in relief of Reed, it would be hard to poke holes in his logic. In just his second appearance out of the bullpen in 43 career games, Rogers allowed just two singles in 3.1 scoreless innings to pick up his first save.

"It was definitely different," Rogers said. "I had to constantly tell myself to slow down and slow my heart rate down and everything. It's a little bit more of a shot of adrenalin coming out of the bullpen."

Behind Rogers and Reed, UK secured an off day on Wednesday before a Thursday matchup with either LSU, Mississippi State or Arkansas. More than that, they helped preserve a healthy and rested pitching staff that should afford Henderson any number of choices for the remainder of the week.

"We just pitched nine innings with two guys and we got a day off...We're in pretty good shape that way," Henderson said. "That doesn't guarantee you anything, other than options, but we still got out three guys down there. We still got Tim (Peterson), Trevor (Gott) and Alex (Phillips). We'll very likely run Jerad (Grundy) out on Thursday and we'll have a fresh bullpen."

Last summer, when they took a service trip to Ethiopia with head coach Joker Phillips, Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart and others, Danny Trevathan and Stuart Hines weren't entirely sure what was in store for them. The experience ended up being a life-changing one, with the two rising seniors witnessing a culture and a lifestyle unimaginably far removed from their own.

On Friday, a new group of rising seniors will follow in the footsteps of Hines and Trevathan and make the same trip with Phillips at their side. For a year now, Mikie Benton, Matt Smith and Larry Warford have listened to stories and seen photographs from the weeklong trip and, even though the trio has an idea what lies ahead, that doesn't mean they expect it to have any less of an impact on them.

"I am just going to try to get a new perspective on how I see the world," Warford said. "Mr. Barnhart, who's been there a couple times, he said it's an eye-opening experience. He said it just changes your perspective on life completely. You'll never look at things the same way when you come back to the States."

For Warford, there was a fleeting moment of hesitation when he was first approached about doing it, but based on the way his former counterpart at offensive guard talked about the trip, he couldn't pass up the chance.

"I had never been out of the country and they were talking about going to Africa," Warford said. "I was just like, 'Uh, I'm not sure if I want to do that.' But then I talked to 'Stu,' who went last year and he said it was a great experience. After I found out who else was going, I said, 'I think I'll go on this one.' "

Smith, on the other hand, has been thinking about the possibility since last summer when he first mentioned his interest in taking part in the next trip to Phillips upon hearing his teammates talk about it.

"I guess he remembered that because he asked me and there was no hesitation at all," Smith said. "I jumped at the chance to do that because that only comes around once in a lifetime."

What most struck Smith about the stories of those who went last year was the happiness of the children they worked with in the face of dire surroundings. Particularly with the career path he expects to pursue, working with those kids is something he looks forward to.

"Teaching's something I kind of want to do after football is over with so I think it will be really interesting for me just to see how the kids are in different cultures," Smith said. "I know we're going to be a doing a sports clinic with fifth graders at one of the schools over there so I'm just really excited about that and working with those kids."

Benton, Smith and Warford all recognize that being selected to participate in the trip is both an honor and a responsibility. Like Hines and Trevathan before them, they were tabbed because they are expected to lead next year's football team and get the most out of this unique experience.

"I know that the coaches are expecting a lot out of myself and Larry and Mikie this year with all of us being seniors," Smith said. "It's definitely an experience that I'll remember and I'm glad that the coaches trust in me enough to take me on a trip like this and that they're really looking for me to be a leader on the team. I'm excited to embrace that opportunity."

Benton, having started his career as a walk-on, is the unlikeliest of the three to be selected. But with the way he emerged first as a reliable contributor at safety and now as a leader, he is a deserving choice.

"If somebody would have told me my redshirt year that I'd be taking a trip to Africa through football, I probably would have thought they were crazy," Benton said. "It's a blessing and I'm extremely grateful for it."

Smith expects what he sees over the next seven days to give him a newfound appreciation for his life at home, but a conversation he had with his parents upon finding out he had been selected has already sent him down that path.

"My dad said, 'It's such an opportunity,' and it reminded me that not everybody gets the chance to go on trips like this and do all the things that we get to do as student-athletes," Smith said. "It's something I'll look back on and cherish."

Three weeks ago, even Rachel Lawson wondered if her Kentucky softball team could even reach this point.

The NCAA Tournament-bound Wildcats had just been swept on the road by Mississippi State to drop their record on the season to 23-26, three games below the .500 mark they knew they would have to reach to be eligible for the postseason. With just seven regular-season games and the Southeastern Conference Tournament left on the schedule, things were a little desperate.

"There was a point in the middle of the season where I was like, 'I cannot believe we're at this point.' I was a little nervous," Lawson said. "I was thinking, 'We're going to have to run through the SEC and win the SEC Tournament to make postseason.' "

Star hitter Brittany Cervantes couldn't help but feel the same way, but she wouldn't dare let anybody know about it.

"I wasn't going to say anything to anyone, but in the back of my mind I was a little nervous," Cervantes said.

The last thing Cervantes and her five fellow senior class members who "pretty much turned everything around for Kentucky softball" wanted to do was end their careers falling short of the tournament. There were no "rah-rah" speeches about a late-season surge, but only because they weren't necessary.

"They knew what was going on," Lawson said. "It was one of those unspoken things. I think the cool thing is they just took it upon themselves to continue to get better and better."

Improve they did.

The Cats took care of business in a midweek game against Morehead State before trekking to Florida and taking two of three from the second-ranked Gators. UK would then register its first-ever sweep of No. 22 LSU to move two games above .500. A first-round loss to Georgia in the SEC Tournament cast some lingering doubts about its fate, but they were resolved when "Kentucky" flashed on the screen during the selection show on Sunday.

For the fourth season in a row, the Wildcats (29-28) will play in the NCAA Tournament, a run that will begin against Michigan (39-15) at 4:30 p.m. on Friday as part of the Louisville Regional. All games during the regional will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPN3. The double-elimination format will technically put UK in a "win or go home" situation for the first time this season, but in reality, it's old hat for these Cats.

"The last two weeks was absolutely tournament play," Lawson said. "When we were playing Florida, we knew that we had to take at least two. When we were playing LSU, we knew we had to sweep them. To have your back against the wall that many times in a row, that's what it feels like when you go to postseason."

Michigan and the regional's host, No. 15 Louisville (53-3), have been locks for tournament play for weeks now, which is a testament to the seasons they've had. The Wolverines and Cardinals make for arguably the NCAA's toughest regional, but they haven't dealt with the same strain as the Wildcats down the season's home stretch.

"With LSU, we felt some of that pressure and the way we reacted, that sort of feeling's going to come when we go to regionals and have these tight games," Cervantes said. "I think our team is finally comfortable with that pressure."

UK got another lesson in coping with that pressure during a run to the Super Regionals a season ago, one that ironically began in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the Cats defeated the Wolverines twice. Chanda Bell and Rachel Riley, seniors who pitched every inning of the NCAA Tournament last season, give the team a dimension many others lack with their experience and differing styles.

"When teams have seen one pitcher, we can bring in another or if they're practicing to hit the rise ball, we have Rachel who can come in and throw the drop ball," Bell said.

That doesn't mean the task will be easy.

"They're a juggernaut and they're one of the best teams in the nation," Lawson said. "They always are. They have young pitching this year, but they're very good.

"They have a lot of speed. The top of their order's very good, but they can come with a couple really big hitters in the middle of the lineup. They can do a lot of different things."

Michigan's two primary pitchers, Haylie Wagner and Sara Driesenga, are both freshmen, but the Wolverines boast a 1.90 ERA as a team to go with an offense that has belted 46 home runs this season while batting .288. If UK intends to repeat its Super Regional trip of last season, the Cats also figure to have to get past Louisville, which owns the nation's best record.

The Wildcats have the appropriate respect for two of the nation's top teams, but also confidence that if they play their game, they are capable of doing more than competing with them.

"I think if the right team shows up, we'll come out of that regional," Cervantes said.

In spite of that self-assurance, it would be a stretch to call UK anything but an underdog this weekend, a role the Cats don't necessarily mind.

"It's a challenge that we like," Lawson said. "We love to be the underdog."

After a home sweep of Alabama this weekend, Kentucky is in control of its own quest for a conference championship. Even if he wanted to, there would be no way for Gary Henderson to shield his Wildcats from being aware of the position in which they find themselves.

"We'll address it," Henderson said. "It'll be very short, to the point. They're all smart, they all have a smart phone, they all go to the (Internet), they know the math."

Not so fast Coach Henderson, at least on one of those counts.

"I don't have a smart phone, just for the record," said junior Luke Maile, though he would later admit to owning a phone that would be categorized as "smart" in name only with how poorly it works.

All this technology talk serves only to distract from the heart of the issue, which is that UK is in a place few outside of its own clubhouse walls could have even imagined. Kentucky's primary SEC competitors South Carolina (a half-game back of first) and LSU (a full game behind UK) were expected to be in this spot, but not the Wildcats.

The 2012 season has proven to be an unforgettable journey, but its end is yet to be written and the next leg will make the "journey" metaphor quite a bit more literal. Beginning on Tuesday with a game at in-state foe Murray State, UK embarked on a road trip that will last at least nine days and as long as nearly two weeks

"It could be a long one," Henderson said. "We hope it's really long, a couple weeks long."

Henderson isn't the only one embracing the prospect of being separated from his own bed for an extended period. The road stretch has been on the Cats' minds for a while now, and with it finally here, they're happy it means as much as it does.

"We've been talking about this road trip for a long time and we were really hoping we could go into this thing with an opportunity to do something that hasn't been done here in a while or hasn't been done here at all," Maile said. "We're excited and we can't wait for it."

How long it ends up lasting hinges on how far the Cats advance in the SEC Tournament, but that's another topic for another day, as three games this weekend at Mississippi State are big enough on their own. More important than UK playing its way into a bye in the conference tournament or even winning a conference championship is jockeying for a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. If the Wildcats play well in this extended stint away from Lexington, they could be in line to be at home for a long while afterward.

"I think the bye's important and there's not a coach that wouldn't take it," Henderson said. "I think it's important. Probably more important to me is finishing out the last four regular season and then (the SEC Tournament) in Birmingham and see if we can't jump into a first eight seed. To me, that's the focal point."

A national seed like the one Henderson is talking about would earn UK the right to play both a Regional and Super Regional in the comforts of Cliff Hagan Stadium. According to the latest projections, the Wildcats are on the cusp of that, but it won't come without some substantial challenges.

Mississippi State (31-20, 13-14 SEC) has plenty to play for in its own right. The Bulldogs will be looking to bolster their already strong NCAA Tournament credentials with a series win over No. 2 UK (41-12, 18-9 SEC) beginning with Thursday's series opener at 7:30 p.m.

Only Michael Williams on UK's current roster has ever played a game in Starkville, Miss., but the Wildcats can call on the experience of taking two of three at Arkansas, a place notorious for being among the toughest to play nationally.

"To me, if you can play well in Fayetteville, you can play well on the road any place probably in the country," Henderson said. "Fayetteville's a real challenge and Arkansas (has) real arms."

Any discussion of "real arms" among SEC pitchers would be incomplete with Mississippi State's Chris Stratton (9-1, 2.22 ERA), who will start the opener against UK. Stratton didn't lose his first start of the season until this weekend against Florida and even then he allowed just two runs over seven innings. On the year, Stratton has pitched 89.1 innings with eye-popping totals of 67 hits allowed and 107 strikeouts.

"They've got a real guy on (Thursday) night, so it doesn't really matter how many people are in the stands when you got a guy throwing it 97 (miles per hour)," Maile said. "We're going to have to battle."

Adding to the intrigue is current Bulldog head coach John Cohen, who coached at Kentucky for five seasons and led the school to an SEC title in 2006. For Henderson, who served as Henderson's pitching coach for all five of those years at UK, the experience of facing off against someone he worked closely with will be a unique one.

"It's like playing anybody you've ever worked with," Henderson said. "It's definitely a little bit different. There's a certain part of you that would rather not play those people for different reasons."

It won't take long for those emotions to go flying out the window though.

"Once the game starts, it's on," Henderson said. "John's going to try and win and so are we. That part never changes. It'll be two competitive groups going at it."

Regardless of who is in the opposing dugout, where the game is played or the stakes, the focus for UK will remain the same as it has all season.

"The bottom line is we got to take it one day at a time and just keep trying to win baseball games," Maile said. "If we do that, everything's going to work out."

Henderson not concerned about health of Grundy

Jerad Grundy's start on Saturday against Alabama was cut short when he took a line drive off his left (throwing) forearm. Clearly, losing Grundy for any extended stretch would be a blow.

Henderson reported that he had not yet seen the junior lefthander on Monday, but also that he had heard no further news that would cause him to question his status for this weekend.

"I think he's fine," Henderson said.

Dennis Emery knows these types of opportunities are rare.

It's not often that a coach has the best player in the history of his program playing the best tennis of his career in the middle of his final postseason run. It's less often still that that player is surrounded by the arguably the best assemblage of talent in school history. Having those things converge with an uncommon sense of togetherness among the team, that might happen once in a career.

Beyond this season, the future remains bright for Kentucky men's tennis, and Emery will field contenders again, just as he has throughout his tenure. But this time it feels a little different. This time Emery has no intention of letting this chance get away from his Wildcats.

"When you're here, when you're at Kentucky in the SEC, the one thing I've learned over 30 years is when you have a good team, you better win," Emery said.

For the third year in a row, UK will play in the Sweet 16. There, the No. 6 Cats (28-5) will face No. 11 Stanford (19-8) on Friday at 4 p.m. in Athens, Ga. A victory would send Kentucky to the Elite Eight for the second straight season, but UK has never advanced past the national quarterfinals. In the minds of players and coaches, this is the year to break through that glass ceiling.

"It's important when you're good to seal the deal and put the nail of the coffin and that's what we have to do this week coming up," Emery said. "We graduate our No. 1 (Quigley) and 2 (Alex Musialek) and though we feel like we're going to be good next year, this our time."

Emery has no trouble identifying what makes this team different. Assistant coaches Cedric Kauffmann and Matt Emery have made a difference in developing and mentoring players, but even more importantly, the young Wildcats they get to coach are pretty good too.

"We're just better than we have been in terms of our talent. We have the ability to make mistakes and outrun them, out-jump them, out-serve them sort of," Emery said. "Our talent level is significantly better this year. We're more athletic. I've been around long enough, I had forgotten how important it was to have the best players."

Mix in the fire inside of every member of this team and you have something special.

"We've got a lot of character," Emery said. "These guys really want to win. It's the most competitive team I have ever been around and it's hard to describe. They're very, very competitive, both individually and as a team. They take a lot of pride in what they're doing."

In case advancing in the NCAA Tournament wasn't enough motivation, the Cats will have the extra edge of a rematch with the Cardinal, one of just four teams to defeat them all season. Back in February, UK was just a day removed from its first defeat of the season, a heartbreaking 4-3 decision at the hands of Ohio State, when then-No. 9 Stanford came calling. In a rare occurrence, it was the Cats' depth at the bottom half of the singles lineup that felled them.

"It was a match I felt like we definitely should have won the first time around," Emery said of the 4-1 loss. "I felt like I necessarily didn't do a very good job preparing our team. We played great at one, two and three. We played probably our worst match of the year at four, five, six and in the doubles."

Though it has been nearly three months, the loss is fresh in the Wildcats' minds, a stinging reminder an eight-day stretch that saw them drop three straight matches, or 60 percent of their total on the season.

"You definitely want to get some revenge," Quigley said. "They're definitely a good team, but I think we can play a little better."

The  rematch as well the rest of the NCAA Tournament will be played on Georgia's home courts at the Dan McGill Tennis Complex, a venue that calls to mind much more pleasant memories than UK's first opponent there. On March 30, the Wildcats beat the Bulldogs 4-3 in a match that ended up being the difference in UK's first SEC championship in two decades.

"It's a great place to play," Emery said. "It's a venue that our players love to play in. If you could have seen us play Georgia earlier this year, they were just thriving on that situation."

Two seasons ago, the Cats' Sweet 16 run ended in Georgia, a run they built on last year in advancing to the Elite Eight. The Wildcats want to take another step forward into the Final Four, but make no mistake about it, it's not their ultimate goal.

"We just don't want to improve on the previous year, we really want to go all the way," Quigley said.

With his team's NCAA Tournament life on the line against Indiana, the last place Dennis Emery wanted Eric Quigley was on the sidelines.

Or so he thought.

Kentucky's all-time wins leader spent more time as a cheerleader than on the court, posting singles and doubles victories well before any of his teammates finished their own matches. After prevailing 8-3 alongside partner Panav Jha in doubles, he breezed through a never-in-doubt singles match, 6-1, 6-0, a score that somehow didn't even do his performance justice.

Quigley wasted no time moving to support his teammates, and he was greeted by a sight he could hardly believe.

"I walked off the court and I saw Anthony Rossi on court three was like two-all, two-one and I was like, 'That can't be right,' Quigley said. "But it was."

With Quigley anchoring the lineup, the No. 6 Wildcats (27-5) dispatched the visiting Hoosiers to advance to their third Sweet 16 in a row, an achievement not lost on anyone involved.

"He played fantastic in singles and doubles and I think it's a real credit for him," Emery said. "It's a huge match for us. This is the third straight year we've gone to the Sweet 16. They understand all that that means."

With each successive match potentially being the last of Quigley's decorated career, it would be understandable if he placed an inordinate amount of pressure on himself to play well. Instead, he summarily dismissed Isade Juneau, continuing his steak of singles matches without a loss that dates to March 19.

"You have a tendency to maybe think he's going to play a little tight," Emery said. "Just the opposite. He really turned it loose. Maybe not necessarily a great matchup for him at (court) one, but he really took care of business."

Afterwards Quigley, currently ranked third nationally as a singles player, confirmed what everyone who watched him play on Saturday already knew: that he played very well, even by his lofty standards.

"I'm pretty pleased with how I played in singles and doubles today," Quigley said. "It was a quick match, but there's just some days you feel like you can't do anything wrong. I feel like today is one of those days."

In two NCAA Tournament singles matches thus far, Quigley is yet to lose a set, dropping just four games in the process. That comes in stark contrast to last year's tournament run, when UK advanced to the Elite Eight in spite of Quigley losing three times in four singles matches.

Clearly, Quigley has improved his game since then, but he credits reaching a new level of play to his teammates as much anything else. With a deeper lineup and improvement in doubles, Quigley doesn't go into his matches thinking winning or losing will come down to how he fares.

"I really had a good season and it's also really good knowing we're so deep this year one through six," Quigley said. "It really doesn't matter if I win or lose, we can get four other points for sure. I think that's taken a lot off my shoulders this year."

Between the way Quigley and the rest of the Cats are playing, their goals are certainly within reach.

"We're not done," Quigley said. "We really want to keep going and improve on what we did last year and we don't want to end anytime soon. Our goal is to win it all, so anything less, we'll kind of be a little disappointed."

Even so, there are plenty of talented teams and players that could put a premature end to Quigley's career, but the fact that UK is now in position to contend on an annual basis will remain no matter what. Quigley has had a lot to do with that.

"There's almost no way you can describe what he's done for our program. I think he took it from, you know, we had a good culture, but now we have a championship culture."

Trailing by a game in the standings with just two weeks left in Southeastern Conference, wins are a precious for Kentucky. Facing Alabama - a team that had won seven times in 24 conference games - for a three-game set in the comforts of Cliff Hagan Stadium, the UK had an opportunity to gain some ground.

Behind starter Taylor Rogers, the Wildcats showed no intention of letting it go by.

Rogers worked around a single lackluster inning to post his third quality start in four outings and the UK offense had its best output in SEC play in two weeks en route to a series-opening 4-2 victory over the visiting Crimson Tide. Without question, Rogers set the tone for the rest of the series, which will wrap up on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.

"It's something that I like to do: Come out each weekend and set the tone for us and let the other team know that's what we're here to do," Rogers said.

Since a start at Arkansas in which he made it through just four innings, Rogers has put together his best four-start stretch of his junior season. With his emergence, he has lowered his ERA from 5.07 to 4.60, looking the part of a Friday night starter.

"He did phenomenal," McCarthy said. "He's been having really good starts for us and we knew he was going to go out and do his thing. He kept throwing up zeroes and our offense felt good knowing that Taylor was going to go out and do his job."

It wasn't always smooth sailing for Rogers though. He allowed the first two batters he faced to reach in the first, before coaxing a pop up and a double play ball to escape. However, he would not make it out of the third unscathed.

After Thomas McCarthy snapped an 0-for-17 slump with a two-out, two-RBI double to give UK a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second, four of the first five Alabama batters reached to open the third before Austen Smith's sacrifice fly chased home the second run of the inning to retie the score. Rogers would strike out the next batter to end the frame, his fourth through the first three innings.

 From there, Rogers didn't record a single additional punch out, but he didn't need to. After allowing six batters to reach through the first three innings, he allowed just two hits over his final four innings of work and faced the minimum three times, protecting the second two-run lead his offense gave him with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third.

"I think as it went on, the command got better. It was just more of a mindset than anything," Rogers said. "The beginning of the game, I didn't have much body control and not much of a plan. I think moving forward in the game, it got better."

"I just thought that he was confident," head coach Gary Henderson said. "Every time that he left the ball up or was soft in the release, that he made the release on the next pitch. You didn't see him lose maybe three or four in a row like you had maybe earlier in the year or earlier in his career."

Rogers would exit after seven innings having allowed two runs on seven hits and just one walk, and Alex Phillips came on in his place. He would pick up right where Rogers left off. The left-handed senior needed just 18 pitches to record the game's final six outs, the last three of which came on strikeouts. He picked up his sixth save of the season and Kentucky's 17th as a team to tie a school record set in 1993.

"(It was) kind of an outing that we've come to expect out of him," Henderson said.

Not only did Rogers and Phillips protect the lead their offense gave them, they also protected the momentum the Cats have built in since their only four-game losing streak of the season. It started last Saturday, when Corey Littrell turned in eight dazzling innings against Florida to pitch UK to a 2-1 win.

"We were scuffling a little bit at the time but it's a long season, that's part of baseball. That was a big win for us," McCarthy said of the Florida finale. "It was a statement going into these last few weekends to get that win."

Since, UK has won two more in a row to run its winning streak to three games.

Even so, the Cats don't feel their performing at full capacity. They left eight runners on base and missed out on a handful of opportunities to add to the lead. Henderson, whose Wildcats lead the SEC most offensive categories, doesn't think it will take much for his club to heat back up.

"There's still lots of season left and all it takes is one or two of those guys to get hot and next thing you know, three or four of them are and we're right back to where we want to be," Henderson said.

Final two games of series to played on Saturday

Due to the threat of inclement weather on Sunday, the final two games of UK-Alabama will be played as a doubleheader on Saturday. Former UK star and current Washington Nationals farmhand Alex Meyer will throw out the ceremonial first pitch as part of Senior Day festivities, which will take place before the 2 p.m. opener. The Wildcats' approach will not change.

"It'll be just the same," Henderson said. "We've had more this year than any other year since I've been here, so we'll just go at it the same."