At the end of Wednesday’s episode of Kentucky Sports Radio, the show was joined by special guest Nolan McCarthy, one of the stars of Kentucky Baseball, for a conversation about the SEC-leading Wildcats. McCarthy was kind enough to give KSR ten minutes by phone on the day before UK hosts Vanderbilt in the final series of the regular season. Kentucky controls its own destiny heading into the 2024 home finale, holding a one-game lead over the rest of the conference with three games to go. If Kentucky wins all three against the Commodores, which is a big ask, the first outright SEC championship in school history will be celebrated on Saturday in Lexington.
In the conversation with KSR, McCarthy initially wanted to say the upcoming series is no different than any other on the schedule. However, Matt Jones wasn’t accepting player-speak for an answer; he wanted McCarthy to speak candidly about his mindset heading into the critical series ahead.
McCarthy replied, “Yeah, I mean, I was gonna go out there and say it’s like any other game, but, obviously, we all know what’s on the line. But we know what it takes to win, and it doesn’t really matter who we’re playing at that point, so if we play our game–I mean, it’s gonna be awesome playing in front of all the people who are going to come out, and we’ve had great crowds all year, so that’s going to be awesome–but, yeah, there is a lot on the line, and we like to say we’ve got chips on our shoulders because we always do, we’re never the team that’s going to be preseason-ranked No. 1, but we believe we are the best team in the country so I think (we should) keep those chips on our shoulder and play like we play and I think the outcome’s gonna be good.”
“A long time coming”
As McCarthy’s redshirt junior season winds down at Kentucky, he reflected on how high the program has climbed with Mingione. McCarthy arrived in Lexington in 2021, the year UK went 29-23 with a 12-18 record in the SEC, playing only one game in the postseason, an immediate exit from the SEC Tournament. Three years later, Kentucky is in the driver’s seat in the SEC and very likely to host NCAA games in Lexington as one of the top seeds in the field, maybe even No. 1 overall.
“It’s been a long time coming for Coach Mingione,” McCarthy told KSR on Wednesday. “I give a lot of credit to him for building this program up and just sticking with it because the group of guys we have now is just an amazing group. We’ve always had a good culture here, and it’s just awesome to see it coming to fruition, and us getting some accolades. Hopefully, we can finish that off this weekend.”
Game 1 of the Kentucky-Vanderbilt series is Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Kentucky Proud Park. Trey Pooser will start on the mound for the Wildcats.
More on Nolan McCarthy
— McCarthy started in 42 of Kentucky’s 48 games to date, settling into center field for the SEC slate after shuffling around the outfield earlier in the season
— He ranks third on the team in home runs with seven, while batting .276 with 11 multi-hit games
— He is Kentucky’s only Michigan-born player (Kalamazoo)
— In 2023, he was named to the NCAA Lexington All-Regional Team, hitting three HRs in five NCAA games
Listen to Nolan on McCarthy on KSR
McCarthy’s entire interview can be heard at the end of the second hour of Wednesday’s podcast, beginning at the 39:30 mark.
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