Nick Mingione reflects on Kentucky Baseball's turnaround on eve of Super Regional
Tomorrow, Kentucky Baseball will compete in the NCAA Tournament Super Regional for only the second time in program history. In 2017, Nick Mingione took the Cats to the supers in his first season as head coach. What happened between then and now makes this weekend all the more remarkable.
From 2018 to 2022, Kentucky failed to post a winning record in conference play or receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament. In both 2021 and 2022, the Bat Cats went 12-18 in the SEC, prompting many to call for Mingione’s job. Ahead of a make-or-break season, Mingione overhauled the roster with a dozen transfers and six freshmen. The risk paid off, with Kentucky finishing the regular season with a 36-17 record, 16-14 in the SEC, its best mark since Mingione’s first season in 2017.
On the eve of the Super Regional, Nick Mingione called in from Baton Rouge to preview the series vs. No. 5 LSU and reflect on his program’s turnaround, which the Big Blue Nation celebrated by packing Kentucky Proud Park on Monday. A record 6,796 fans were on hand to see Kentucky beat Indiana to claim a spot in the Super Regional. For Mingione and UK Athletics, it was a dream realized; for several Cats, it was the best night of their lives.
“I’m just so thankful for all the people that watched and showed up on Monday night because I asked Grant Smith, our starting shortstop, Tuesday morning after he rolled up into the facility and I said, ‘Grant, was that awesome or what? How’d that feel?’ He goes, ‘Coach, that was the best night of my life. That was the best night of my life.’
“And I think if I asked a lot of our players they would stay the same but yeah, that environment was unbelievable. Our fans. I mean, you were there, you saw it, you felt it. The energy, the desire to win that not only our team had but everyone in the entire stadium was pretty awesome.”
Lessons from the regular-season series vs. LSU
This weekend, Kentucky faces No. 5 LSU, a team that beat them twice already this season in Baton Rouge. The Cats avoided a sweep in April, winning the second game 13-10, but to have a shot at reaching Omaha, they cannot afford to let the Tigers go up big early as they did in the series opener. LSU scored 11 runs in the first two innings en route to a 16-6 run-rule victory.
“They got off to a huge lead,” Mingione said of the first game vs. LSU on April 13. “I think they jumped out to us in the first game of the series 11-1 and we ended up fighting back and just couldn’t come back.
“We won our second game, as you mentioned and the third game was an absolute nail-biter. It was back and forth. It was a game where both teams felt like they should have and could have won. We walked out of here last time just thinking, man, we should have won two out of three.”
Throughout the week, Mingione and his team have said that playing at LSU already this season will help them this weekend. Prior to the series in Baton Rouge, only one Wildcat had played there before, Darren Williams during his career at Eastern Kentucky.
“It is a special environment,” Mingione said of Alex Box Stadium. “I told our team last time, I didn’t — you know, it was my fault, I felt like because I didn’t know how to prepare them for 13,000 people to scream against them. Right? We didn’t have that and you know, it was kind of like, boom, a little shell shock at the beginning. But yeah, it’s a special environment and they’ll definitely be loud.”
On LSU star pitcher Paul Skenes: “I want our guys to get in the ring with him and throw punches”
Prepared or not, the Cats face a tall task this weekend. LSU boasts one of the top hitters and pitchers in Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes, projected by many to be the top two picks in the 2023 MLB Draft. The Cats held Crews to three hits in nine at-bats back in April but walked him six times. They also got five runs on seven hits on Skenes. Mingione said he wants his team to carry the hunger and confidence they exhibited at home vs. Indiana to Baton Rouge, particularly when Skenes is on the mound.
“The one thing I do want our team to be is aggressive; I want them to go for it. Like, I want them walking into the plate. Obviously, you mentioned [Skenes], who a lot of people think is going to be the first pick in the draft, maybe the second or third or maybe the first pitcher, but I want them to get in the ring with him.
“I think that’s what you got to do to beat the bully or whatever, you’ve got to get in there and you’ve got to throw punches. And yeah, he will strike out some. That’s what he does. I mean the guy you’re gonna see, he’s been in the eighth inning before still throwing 100 miles per hour, but I want our guys to get in the ring with him and throw punches.”
Regardless of what happens this weekend, what Mingione and the Cats have accomplished this season is impressive. From the hot seat to the Super Regional in one year is a remarkable turnaround, one that nearly moved Mingione to tears in his postgame press conference on Monday. Today, he thanked fans and the UK administration for their support, telling Matt that he’s received over 350 texts from friends and former players and coaches this week.
“There’s no secret we’ve been close the last three years and we’ve been knocking on a door and it just hasn’t been good enough,” Mingione said. “All of a sudden in the biggest game, in our stadium, we set all these records, and I’m just thankful because a lot of people care not only just about our baseball program but the athletic department…That’s a pretty neat feeling as a coach.”
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