UK Athletics Photo
Dominic Niman dominated his way to only the third complete game shutout by a pitcher in the Nick Mingione era as No. 12 Kentucky blanked No. 11 Alabama 7-0 to move to 10-1 in Southeastern Conference play for the first time in program history.
Niman joins Sean Hjelle (2017 at Texas A&M) and Zack Thompson (2019 vs. Georgia) in that elite company and both those previous pitchers are now in Major League Baseball.
Niman threw 100 pitches and allowed only one Alabama hitter to reach second base. He did not walk a player, struck out seven and allowed just three hits while hitting one batter. The performance was a complete undressing of an offense averaging nine runs a game and ranking among Division I’s top 15 offenses in multiple categories.
UK (26-4, 10-1) jumped ahead in the first inning with a manufactured run before adding a pair of two-run home runs by Ryan Waldschmidt and Grant Smith. James McCoy added an RBI double to cap the scoring as the Cats now have outscored the Crimson Tide 13-2 in the series.
With the victory UK now has scored series wins each of the four weekends of league play.
At 10-1 in SEC play, Kentucky is off to the best league start in its history. Kentucky is also 8-0 vs. ranked teams this season and the current six-game win streak in SEC play is the longest in the Nick Mingione era.
Kentucky has outscored SEC opponents 45-12 in the last four games.
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The Wildcats and Crimson Tide return to Kentucky Proud Park on Sunday afternoon. The contest will begin at Noon ET and will be aired on the SEC Network, with radio coverage available on 630-AM WLAP (Lexington) and UKAthletics.com.
