By Metz Camfieldmcamfield@kykernel.com

The UK baseball teamis looking for a spark tokeep its season alive.

After dropping six oftheir last eight and 13 oftheir last 17, the Cats (22-22, 7-14 SoutheasternConference) are staringtheir postseason fate deadin the eye. The top eightteams in the conferenceearn a spot in the SECtournament, and the Catsare two games behind thecurrent No. 8 seed, SouthCarolina.

Perhaps the best playerto help provide the last bitof life for the Cats is“Sparky” — senior thirdbaseman Chris McClen-don.

“I wouldn’t say thatmy role is to actually hype

people up,” McClendonsaid. “But I do have thenickname and that’s theway I like to play thegame. I like to come outand bring some extra ener-gy, bring an extra spark be-tween the lines and try toget the team going withmy personal abilities.”

McClendon battledhamstring and back in-juries last year and hasfought a nagging ham-string injury again thisyear. In a game againstMarshall on March 31,McClendon was injuredafter running into a brickwall while chasing a foulball.

Recently, McClendonhas seemed to find his oldform at the plate during afour-game hitting streak. Hehas hit .429 with three RBIduring the hitting streak and

has been a much-neededsource of offensive produc-tion for the Cats.

“Where it hurt us themost is offensively,” juniorcenter fielder Keenan Wi-ley said. “He was a reallygood hitter for us last year.He was one of the leadersfor us on our team hits-wise and stats-wise. Whenyou’re trying to produceruns in this league youneed everybody you can.He’s an experienced guyand we’ve missed that.”

McClendon led all re-turning players on UK’sroster this year with a .346batting average in 2008.But UK head coach GaryHenderson said injuriesslowed McClendon formost of this season.

“He’s a guy that had areally good year last year,”Henderson said. “He’s a

guy that should be able toprovide some senior lead-ership, hit in the middle ofthe order and drive in runs.Unfortunately, he got a lit-tle bit behind and hepressed a little bit. Thegame is hard when thatgoes on.”

McClendon, as one ofonly four seniors, has aleadership role Wiley saidhasn’t wavered. A self-pro-claimed leader by exam-ple, McClendon saidsometimes you have tostep outside of your com-fort zone and be more vo-cal to get the team fired up.With just three SEC seriesleft, it may be more neces-sary to do that now thanever before.

For McClendon, a sec-ond straight trip to thepostseason would be “awe-some.”

“I want to go out ontop; I don’t want to go outthinking we under-achieved,” McClendonsaid. “We just have to goout and play hard. We’retwo games out so every-body’s pretty excited about

that. ... We’re just going togo out and keep playinghard and I think you mightsee a pretty lively club. Ifwe can make some groundup and make the playoffs Ithink anything can hap-pen.”

McClendon hopes to provide spark for Bat Cats

By Sam Ranardsports@kykernel.com

Exchanging their jerseys andsneakers for jackets and dresses,UK Athletics celebrated the bestof the best at the seventh annualCatspy Awards.

Scores of athletes and coach-es from all 22 varsity sports atUK filled Memorial Coliseum tohonor their peers in this year’sCatspy Awards. A total of fiveteams and 28 individuals werehonored Wednesday night.

The Catspys were created toemulate the ESPYs, ESPN’s an-nual sports awards show. In2003, Athletic Director MitchBarnhart wanted to do somethingfor the athletes and coaches toshow appreciation for their hardwork on and off the field, usingthe Catspys to do so.

For the second year in a row,ESPN personality Jay Crawford

hosted the event with co-hostChristi Thomas. In a departure fromrecent years, it was not the men’sbasketball team or the football teamthat stole the show, but it was the

NCAA runner-up rifle team and thetrack and field teams that tookhome most of the hardware.

The rifle team took home fourCatspys, including K-Associa-

tion’s Male Athlete of the Year,given to Tom Csenge, and Coachof the Year, which was awardedto rifle head coach Harry Mullins.

“They won it for me,” Mullinssaid. “Coach of the Year is justpretty much a direct reflection onthem, they’re the ones that makeme look good … Sometimes Ifeel like I’m just the bus driver.”

The men’s track and field teamtook home its share of awards aswell. Coming off its best seasonever, the Cats wrapped up the sea-son last June finishing ninth at theNCAA Championship. The trackand field team won the Male Teamof the Year, while the women’svolleyball team was honored withFemale Team of the Year.

Sarah Rumely, the first vol-leyball player in school history towin the Southeastern ConferencePlayer of the Year, won FemaleAthlete of the Year.

“It’s such a great award,

there are so many deserving peo-ple and I just can’t believe theypicked me,” Rumely said.

Carly Ormerod of thewomen’s basketball team andAshley Trimble of track and fieldwere named Miss Wildcat. Trim-ble said she was honored to re-ceive the award.

“We’ve all been through somuch and there’s plenty of timeswhen you just want to stop andquit,” Trimble said.

Jodie Meeks won the MalePerformance of the Year award.Despite playing in front of over20,000 fans at Rupp Arena,Meeks said he was nervouswhile receiving his award.

Men’s tennis player BrunoAgostinelli, who has been rankedas high as No. 2 in the nation, re-ceived co-Male Athlete of theYear, which he shared with Rifleall-American Tom Csenge, aswell as co-Mr. Wildcat.

PHOTO BY ZACH BRAKE | STAFFUK rifle head coach Harry Mullins won Coach of the Year at the 2009 CatspyAwards ceremony Wednesday at Memorial Coliseum.

PAGE B10 | Thursday, April 30, 2009

PHOTO BY BRITNEY MCINTOSH | STAFFSenior third baseman Chris McClendon, left, is batting .247 forthe Bat Cats this season.

Athletes, coaches honored at 7th annual Catspys