EVANSVILLE, Ind.  –  The University of Evansville baseball team opened their home slate by hosting 18^th-ranked Kentucky on Friday afternoon at Charles H. Braun Stadium, but dropped the series opener to the Wildcats by a score of 9-2.

Harrison Taubert (Casper, Wyo./Northeast CC) made his season debut by going 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI. On the mound, Owen Byberg (Barrie, Ontario/Frontier CC) worked five innings, striking out five while allowing only one earned run. Jaxon Jelkin got the win for Kentucky, while Kenton Deverman (Dardenne Prarie, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West) took the loss for the Aces.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Deverman started the game with three strikeouts in the first inning, but the Wildcats struck first on a solo home run. In the bottom half of the inning, the Aces put a runner in scoring position with two outs, as Wyatt Pennington (Avon, Ind./Avon) singled and Reagan Reeder (Ramsey, Minn./Illinois) drew a walk. However, a strikeout kept the Aces off the board.

Deverman worked around a single in the second to post a zero, but Kentucky broke the game open in the third with a four-run inning.

Kentucky extended the lead to seven in the fourth before making it 9-0 in the fifth.

Evansville got on the board in the fifth inning when Taubert led off the inning with a home run to left field, his first of the season.

Byberg kept the score 9-1 through the eighth, retiring nine of 10 Wildcats he faced. In the bottom of the ninth, Evansville put another run on the board on a double by Ximi Baftiri (Morris, Ill./Morris) and an RBI single by Taubert, but that was all, as the Wildcats took a 9-2 win.

UP NEXT
Evansville and Kentucky conclude the series on Saturday at Charles H. Braun Stadium with a doubleheader beginning at Noon. Game two is scheduled to start approximately 45 minutes following the conclusion of game one.