Cats Hope to Benefit from Familiar Surroundings, Routine

Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione knew the answer before he asked the question, but he wanted to prove a point. Mingione asked his Kentucky baseball team how many of the players on the roster had participated in an NCAA Baseball Tournament.

“I talked to our team, and I said ‘raise your hand if you have played in a postseason game’ and three guys raised their hand,” Mingione said. “We’ve had three guys who have actually played in an (NCAA Tournament) game.”

The number is actually four players on the current Kentucky roster who have played in the NCAA Baseball Tournament, but Mingione made his point. 

Those four players all got their NCAA Tournament experience in 2014 at the Louisville Regional. Outfielder Storm Wilson, now a senior, started Kentucky’s four games in the regional, scoring three runs in four games. Senior closer Logan Salow took a loss in a 4-1 setback against Louisville in the game that eliminated Kentucky from the regional. Salow pitched six innings, giving up five hits and one earned run, with three walks and four strikeouts.

Senior shortstop Connor Heady was a defensive substitution in a loss to Louisville, while senior outfielder Marcus Carson scored a run in a pinch-running role against Kent State. 

While this might bother some coaches, Mingione is not discouraged by his team’s lack of NCAA Tournament experience. In fact, he’s embracing it.

“I kind of like that, that’s kind of my deal,” Mingione said. “That doesn’t bother me, that actually excites me because, in my brain, I’m going to say ‘if we play well and we’re fortunate enough to win this, then we just did it with a bunch of guys that have never done it before’ and that’s the reason I took this job. Not having experience is just the same as that.”

The Wildcats hope that playing at home inside Cliff Hagan Stadium can help offset the nerves or jitters that might come with playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time. For his part, Mingione is treating this weekend like any home series during the regular season.

“Being able to be home is going to be key,” Mingione said. “Obviously, they are sleeping in their own beds. I opted not to take them to hotel rooms or anything like that. I wanted it to be exactly the same.”

Home has been good to the Wildcats this season. Kentucky is 27-5 at games played at the Cliff, and Mingione hopes that the familiarity of the home field will outweigh Kentucky’s lack of NCAA Tournament experience.

As for the coaching staff, Mingione knows it’s important for himself and his assistants to stay with a consistent message to the team.

“If I’m telling our guys (to stay the same), and they show up and I’m totally different or the rest of our staff is totally different, that would be really easy to get confused,” Mingione said. “Having been privileged enough to play in the postseason a bunch in my career, I believe how important that is.”

Mingione and the Wildcats hope that being at home and staying with the same routine will continue to be a successful formula, as it has all season at the Cliff.