Kentucky rallies to beat Wake Forest 6-5 in NCAA opener

Stymied by an impressive Wake Forest pitching staff in his first four trips to the plate on Friday, Kentucky’s Jayce Tharnish delivered perhaps the biggest hit of his team’s season to date in the ninth inning.

The Cats’ junior centerfielder slapped a one-out single to right field, stole second and third, then raced home with the game-winning run on a wild pitch to give Kentucky a 6-5 win in the opening game of the Morgantown Regional.

“He does not get frustrated… His ability to move on is unbelievable,” UK head coach Nick Mingione said of Tharnish’s heroic ninth inning after going 0-for-4 in his previous at-bats.

Third-seeded Kentucky (32-21) will advance to play the winner of Friday’s second game, a matchup between host West Virginia (1) and Binghamton (2) at Kendrick Family Ballpark. The Cats will play next at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday.

It marked the fourth time in five regional appearances under Mingione that the Cats have won their opening game.

Wake Forest (38-20) drops to the dreaded elimination bracket, where it will face the loser of the West Virginia-Binghamton game on Saturday at Noon ET.

To avoid that fate, Kentucky had to overcome an early 3-0 deficit. The Cats did so by knocking out Demon Deacons ace Chris Levonas after only five innings on the mound. He allowed only one run on two hits, but expended 96 pitches to do so.

“To our guys’ credit, they showed real toughness,” Mingione said. “It would have been really easy to just go, ‘Oh, man, we got a dude on the mound, he’s shoving. This is not our day.’ No, 27 straight guys went to the plate and saw three pitches or more and absolutely grinded on a pitcher that is amazing. That’s what it was going to take. And then we were able to get our big inning.”

Kentucky plated four runs against Wake Forest’s top bullpen arm, hard-throwing lefty Rhys Bowie, to take a 5-3 lead in the sixth, highlighted by a two-run double by Braxton Van Cleave.

The Deacons tied the game on solo home runs by Andrew Costello and Dalton Wentz in the sixth and eighth innings, but could do no damage against UK’s Jackson Soucie in the bottom of the ninth.

Soucie earned his second save of the season by retiring Wake Forest in order. Nile Adcock (5-1) earned the win by working the seventh and eighth innings with only one run scoring.

Jaxon Jelkin started on the mound for UK, allowing four runs on nine hits over six innings. He struck out five and walked none.

“When we needed him the most, he got the biggest outs,” Mingione said.

Control was a big advantage for the Cats, who issued no walks, hit no batters, and had no wild pitches. Kentucky was also error-free in the field. Three of Wake Forest’s 10 hits were home runs, but they produced only four runs.

Will Ray (2-1) took the loss for the Deacons, allowing the go-ahead run in the ninth on his wild pitch.

Kentucky made the most of its five hits on the day, adding seven more baserunners via walk or hit by pitch, and scoring a pair of runs on wild pitches. Caeden Cloud (double) and Carson Hansen (sac fly) added RBI for the Cats.

“The definition of a good offense is your ability to score runs when you’re not hitting,” Mingione said.

In addition to his ninth-inning heroics at the plate and on the basepaths, Tharnish made a running catch while crashing into the left-centerfield wall in the seventh inning to take an extra-base hit away from Wake Forest’s Costello.

Up Next:

Kentucky will face the winner of today’s West Virginia (1) vs. Binghamton (4) game on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET for a spot in the championship bracket of the double-elimination event.

FINAL: Kentucky 6, Wake Forest 5

Cats rally from early 3-0 deficit, then again from a 5-5 game in the ninth to advance in the Morgantown Regional. UK will play winner of West Virginia and Binghampton on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/J5X3WQYWJI

— Jeff Drummond (@JDrumUK) May 29, 2026