Kentucky, Louisville Agree to Postpone Game Scheduled for Tuesday Following Mass Shooting in Louisville
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky and Louisville baseball have mutually agreed to postpone their game scheduled for Tuesday night at Jim Patterson Stadium, the programs announced on Monday.
The postponement comes following a mass shooting that occurred in Louisville on Monday that left at least four people dead and nine others injured.
"In light of the tragic events in Louisville on Monday, the University of Louisville and University of Kentucky baseball programs have made a mutual decision to postpone Tuesday night’s baseball game at Jim Patterson Stadium. The two programs will work to reschedule the contest for a later date," Louisville Baseball's Twitter account announced.
Tuesday night's game was set to be the first of two meetings between Kentucky and Louisville this season. The team's will play at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington on April 25. The canceled game does not have to be rescheduled, though both programs will work to try and do so.
“I just want to put my thoughts and prayers out to those folks in Louisville. As you guys know, anytime you have an event like this, it not only affects the city, the state, but our entire country, so my thoughts and prayers are gonna go out to them," Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said on Monday.
Mingione continued:
“One thing I will say about the people of Kentucky is that we really care about one another. A baseball game, it's important, but doesn't carry near the weight — that what's going on (in Louisville) today.
So this state, even this university, you know, we've continued to just step up and do anything we can to help, so we'll do the same. You know, and I think this is one of those situations to where you just hope it never happens.
And when it does, you know, the only thing I know to do is pray. Because I do believe in the power of prayer, then making ourselves available. You know, much like we've done, and you've seen people in this state do over and over with everything that the state has been through, you know, we do have a heart of service. And we'll do the same in this situation.”
Kentucky will tentatively return to action on Thursday, April 13 for the first of three games scheduled against No. 1 LSU at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.