The Kentucky Wildcats swept the Lexington Regional to advance to the Super Regional round of the NCAA championship tournament following their 5-0 win over Indiana State. Following their advancement to the next round, head coach Nick Mingione discussed balancing the team’s accomplishments thus far with what they are still on a quest to achieve — becoming the 2024 college baseball champions.
“This facility is an amazing facility, and my favorite thing about this facility is actually the people in it,” said Mingione. “You can have a building, a beautiful building and facility. But if you don’t have the right people on the inside, what good is it?
“And all of the graphics and everything in this facility was intentionally placed in the spots that they were in. And a guy by the name of Kevin Saal, a good friend of mine who was here; he’s now the athletic director at Wichita State. We sat down and looked at every wall and everything. And we knew that when they came in in this classroom — that’s what we call this, our classroom because we believe we’re teachers and we’re trying to teach them and trying to lead them.”
Mingione and the Wildcats finished this year as the SEC’s co-regular season champs, sharing the title with the Tennessee Volunteers after finishing conference play with a 22-8 record. It was the first time back in Kentucky won a regular season title. The Wildcats would do so by wrapping up the regular season with an overall record of 40-14 and an RPI rank of No. 3.
As Mingione continued, he outlined what steps Kentucky would take to achieve its goal.
“We made that decision, when they walk through that wall, the first thing they would see is the Kentucky sign. And when they got to their seats they would see that sign,” Mingione continued. “That was placed there intentionally for them to be a reminder that it was all about Kentucky. And as they walked to their seats, the goal was to go there and eventually be national champions. So that’s what our goal is. That’s what the goal is. And I’m just thankful to be in this position. But they understand the goal.”
“If you were to ask our players what the goal on the field was, they would tell you that our goal was to be national champions. This was one step. And anytime you can win a championship of any kind — obviously, we won the SEC; we’re now a regional champion — these are experiences that they’ll never forget. And as a coach it brings me the greatest joy to watch them celebrate and have experiences that they’ll never forget. And because of that, they’ll have a bond with these guys, and they’ll be in each other’s weddings and do all that. So that gives me peace. That gives me peace and happiness for them.”
Without a doubt, Mingione and the Wildcats have had an impressive regular season and postseason run up to this point. His ability to get Kentucky to host a regional — its first time since 2006 — had plenty of Big Blue Nation singing his praise. Sweeping the Lexington Regional only added to the high regard he is currently held.
As Mingione highlights in his comments, Kentucky has to remain balanced and focus on the task at hand, which is finishing this year on top of the college baseball world. They will have an opportunity to continue that quest in front of their home fan for the Super Regional round as they are set to host the Oregon State Beavers. If Kentucky can take care of business against Oregon State, the Wildcats will punch their ticket to the College World Series, getting one step closer to bringing home the program’s first-ever College World Series title.
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