Baseball Cats face challenging slate

Thirty-one teams that were part of last year’s NCAA Tournament field highlight a challenging schedule for Kentucky baseball in 2013.

The school released its 2013 schedule on Tuesday. The Wildcats will play 56 games, including 24 against teams that finished in the top 50 of last year’s RPI rankings.

“We have put together a great schedule for the 2013 season,” said Gary Henderson, who enters his fifth year as UK head coach. “After taking a big step forward in 2012, we are looking forward to continuing the progress in 2013. It will be nice to have 33 games at Cliff Hagan for our fans who will once again really enjoy watching this team compete on a daily basis.”

The schedule also features nine games on the road against College World Series teams from 2012.

Kentucky opens the season for the fifth consecutive year in South Carolina, traveling to Spartanburg to play UNC Asheville on Feb. 15 at Wofford. The Cats will play USC Upstate on Feb. 16 and Niagra on Feb. 17 to round out The Opening weekend.

The Cats return to the Palmetto State the following weekend to play in the Coastal Carolina tournament in Myrtle Beach’s Pelicans Park, where UK will face Elon, Coastal Carolina and Kansas State.

The home schedule begins on Feb. 25 against Murray State and Feb. 27 against Eastern Kentucky, followed by a three-game series with Akron on March 1-3.

Kentucky opens SEC play on March 15-17, traveling to Florida. UK will face SEC road opponents LSU on April 5-7, South Carolina on April 19-21, Ole Miss on April 26-28 and Missouri on May 16-18.

UK’s home SEC weekends will include Mississippi State on March 22-24, Georgia on March 29-31, Tennessee on May 3-5 and Vanderbilt on May 10-12.

The Cats are coming off a school-record 45 wins in 2012 and matched their best finishes in the SEC and NCAA tournaments.