For the second consecutive season, Kentucky baseball is headed back to the super regional round, and this time, they’re hosting as the No. 2 overall seed.
The Wildcats have advanced out of the regional two other times under Nick Mingione, once back in 2017 and then in 2023. Both times they went on the road and lost in two games to higher seeds in the supers. This year, though, No. 15 Oregon State comes to Lexington and Kentucky Proud Park, which provided and exceptional home field advantage all weekend.
After the third win in three days to wrap up the regional as quickly as possible, Wildcat shortstop Grant Smith spoke on the raucous crowd in the Lexington Regional and complimented the support all season long.
“It was awesome. The second half of the season, the whole season, honestly, just so special with BBN,” said Smith. “And tonight was incredible. I can’t remember that feeling of having a crowd like that.”
Towards the end of the year, Kentucky actually added seating ahead of the postseason after selling out several games in the regular season. That extra noise certainly is making a difference so far in the NCAA Tournament, per Smith.
“But those stands in the outfield are awesome,” he added. “And BBN is showing out and filling them up. Next weekend should be even more fun.”
Kentucky’s second baseman, Emilien Pitre, also commended the atmosphere, saying: “I’m seeing 5,800 right there as the attendance. It felt like 10,000. I can’t imagine what it’s going to feel like next weekend.”
Now, Kentucky fans will gear up for the biggest home baseball series perhaps in program history, since the ‘Cats will be competing to make their first-ever trip to Omaha for the College World Series.
Smith and Pitre are a big reason why UK advanced out of the regional to begin with. In the final game vs. Indiana State, both infielders came up huge. Pitre hit a home run while both were electric on defense. Smith made the No. 1 play on the SportsCenter Top 10 for the day with a diving grab in the outfield, and he and Pitre also turned a nifty double play at one point.
The real hero was pitcher Mason Moore, who was clearly not feeling 100% and was a bit under the weather but toughed it out to provide a dramatic but scoreless start which ultimately helped lead to a shutout of the Sycamores.
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