No. 2 Kentucky couldn’t be off to a much better start in the Lexington Regional with a 7-0 lead through four innings against Western Michigan. While that may be true, Nick Mingione knows there’s a lot of game still to play at Kentucky Proud Park.
Mingione spoke with the SEC Network ahead of the fourth inning with his Wildcats up 7-0 over the Broncos at Kentucky Proud Park. He said that that start represents the preparation that his team had showed in the days leading up to their opener in the 2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament.
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“Yeah, it’s exactly what you guys are seeing is what I’ve been watching for four days. Just them competing at a really high level,” said Mingione. “They’re having fun and they’re just firing on all cylinders right now.”
Much of that effort has come from turning defense into energy on offense. Graduate LHP Dominic Niman has struck out four with Western Michigan being 1-13 at the plate through his four innings. In turn, the Wildcats have hit it all over. They had eight runs off of 10 hits, including a home run from James McCoy, in 19 at-bats.
“I think Dom has been doing a good job of doing that right there – getting ahead and getting our defense involved. When he does that, he’s at his best and the same thing with our defense,” said Mingione. “You guys know this – that usually carries over to the offensive side.”
Still, at that point, Kentucky and Western Michigan still had only played a third of the game. That’s why Mingione, while pleased with his Wildcats thus far, stayed focus on the rest of their opener today.
“You guys know this – there still is more baseball to be played but so far so good,” said Mingione.
“No, not yet,” Mingione said in reference to if anything had disappointed him in their performance yet. “You know, when we’re at our best – and I say yet because, again, with baseball? There’s a lot of game to be played, right. There’s still six full innings. But so far so good.”
Mingione sees a ‘huge benefit’ in playing at home in NCAA Tournament
Kentucky is as high of a seed as they’ve ever been for the NCAA Baseball Tournament this year. It marks the fourth-ever Lexington Regional, which they’ve now hosted in consecutive seasons for the first time ever, and they’ll have their opportunity to host their first-ever Super Regional in the bluegrass.
Home-field advantage is obviously a huge deal as Nick Mingione explained this week following their selection as the No. 2 overall seed.
“You know, when you look at the track record of teams that have made it to Omaha? Obviously, there’s a huge benefit to playing at home,” said Mingione in that press conference. “We always wanted the path to Omaha to be through here. Obviously, we haven’t put ourselves in a position where we can do that up until this year.”
“It’s definitely going to be a bonus to play at home,” Mingione said.
Kentucky Baseball has a possibility to make it to the College World Series for the first time ever this season. That’s why, based on that and the forecast, Mingione is calling on their fanbase to take a day today and take themselves out to their ball games over the weekend.
“I’ve already checked the weather – just so you guys know,” Mingione said with a smirk. “This is the time of year where you do have some rain and things like that. But, right now, Friday looks amazing, especially at noon.”
“Everybody that has an opportunity to take a half-day at work, you get full permission from me,” said Mingione. “I’ll give you a Get Out Of Jail Free card an excuse to miss work. If you come, just blame me.”
The post Nick Mingione confident in second-overall national seed Kentucky during Lexington Regional appeared first on On3.