May 5, 2002

Box Score

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Behind Rob Corrado's first career complete game shutout, the University of Kentucky baseball team defeated Arkansas, 1-0, in front of 1,622 fans at UA's Baum Stadium Sunday afternoon. The Wildcats claim their first Southeastern Conference series of the season and won back-to-back league games for the first time since sweeping Vanderbilt in Nashville to end the 2000 regular season.

"It feels really good to get this series," Coach Keith Madison said. "This is one of the few weekends of the year that we've had a predominately healthy ball club. We got two outstanding pitching performances from Joseph Blanton and Rob Corrado and it feels good to see these guys come together like they have this weekend. Some people might say it's too late, but it's never too late to start playing well- we played 18 innings of errorless baseball and I'm proud of our guys."

Starters Rob Corrado (UK) and Gary Hogan Jr. (UA) cruised through four innings of scoreless baseball until Spencer Preston ripped his first career triple in the fifth out of the reach of a diving Ryan Fox in right field. After a Russ Rutherford walk, the Cats had runners on first and third with one down but squandered their scoring opportunity when Rutherford was caught stealing and Brad Pickrell flew out to center to end the inning.

Kentucky finally plated a run in the top of the seventh when Mike Ferris singled to left-center and took second on his first stolen base of the season. Russ Rutherford answered with a two-out double to center that brought Ferris home to give UK a 1-0 advantage. UA coach Norm DeBriyn replaced Hogan Jr. with Scott Roehl after six and two-thirds, and the sophomore right-hander delivered by forcing Pickrell to fly to left quelling the Cats' rally. The lone run would prove to be all the Cats would need.

The two wins over the Razorbacks this weekend represent the first series won for UK since it defeated Vanderbilt, two games to one, last April in Lexington. The last shutout in conference play for the Wildcats was on March 9, 2001 when Scott Wade went the distance in a 6-0 win at Ole Miss. For the day, Corrado pitched nine complete, giving up two hits with three walks and nine strikeouts on 122 pitches.

UK will next play host to Morehead State on Tuesday, May 7 in a 6 p.m. ET game at Cliff Hagan Stadium before resuming SEC action next weekend at Vanderbilt.

UK	000   000   100  -  1  6  0
UA	000   000   000  -  0  2  0
Win: Corrado (1-2)
Loss: Hogan, Jr. (3-6)
Save: None
Time: 2:17
Attendance: 1,622

- UK -

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