QUEENS, N.Y.– The St. John’s baseball team will continue its season-opening road trip at No. 22 Kentucky for a three-game series beginning on Friday afternoon in Lexington, Ky.
Game one on Friday at Kentucky Proud Park is set for 4 p.m. The next day, first pitch will be at 1 p.m. The series finale on Sunday will start at 1 p.m. All games will be televised on SEC Network+. Live stats will be available on RedStormSports.com.
The last time the two programs met was on Feb. 23, 2014, when the Wildcats came away with a 13-0 win. Kentucky leads the all-time series 2-0. St. John’s will be playing its first SEC opponent since the 2024 NCAA Tournament, when it played Mississippi State twice.
Last weekend, St. John’s (1-6) continued its early-season road slate with a three-game series at Arizona State in Tempe.
In the series opener on Feb. 20, the Red Storm fell to the Sun Devils, 9-1. St. John’s kept the game close through the middle innings before Arizona State used a late offensive surge to pull
away. Lewis Rodriguez accounted for the Johnnies’ lone run with a solo home run.
On Feb. 21, the Johnnies dropped a tightly contested matchup, 3-1. The Red Storm traded early runs with Arizona State before the Sun Devils pushed across the deciding run in the fifth inning. Adam Agresti homered in the third give St. John’s an offensive edge. The Johnnies used a strong effort from the pitching staff, limiting ASU to just five hits.
St. John’s closed the series on Feb. 22 with a 16-6 loss. The Red Storm scored early and remained within striking distance after the Sun Devils took the lead after five innings, but Arizona State used a big sixth inning to run away with the win. Seven different Johnnies recorded hits in the contest.
As a team, the Red Storm are off to a strong start defensively. The squad is 40th in the country with a .983 fielding percentage through the first two weekends. In addition, the Johnnies are 45th in the nation in turning double plays with a total of five.
Freshman Dylan Fitzsimmons has impressed through the first two series of the 2026 campaign. The Denville, N.J., native has reached base safely in all games and collected hits in six of the seven contests. The starting right fielder leads the team in five offensive categories: batting average (.435), slugging percentage (.522), on-base percentage (.552), hits (10) and doubles (2), and is second on the team in walks.
Kentucky enters the weekend ranked 22nd in the D1 Baseball Top 25 poll and has appeared in all three editions of the Top 25. The Wildcats boast a 6-2 record, having most recently defeated Western Kentucky, 13-9, on Wednesday night at Kentucky Proud Park. Kentucky swept UNC Greensboro on the road to start the season. Last week, the Wildcats fell in their first midweek
contest, 8-6, to Morehead State. UK rebounded with a series win over Evansville, taking two of the three games.
As a team, Kentucky holds a .314 batting average and puts up 9.57 runs per contest. The pitching staff owns a 3.34 ERA, holding opponents to fewer than five runs in five of seven games.
Ben Cleaver represented the Wildcats on the Preseason All-SEC Second Team. Cleaver holds a 1-0 record in two starts this season, boasting a 1.13 ERA in 8.0 innings pitched. The southpaw has 12 strikeouts, allowing six hits and one run.
After its weekend series in Lexington, the Red Storm have a quick turnaround for their first midweek series in State College, Pa., in a two-game tilt at Penn State from March 3-4.