Resilient Thompson Pitches UK into Regional Final

Things couldn’t have started much worse for Zack Thompson.

Making his NCAA Tournament debut in an elimination game for Kentucky, the true freshman served up a home run on the first pitch he threw.

Thompson wasn’t about to let that derail him.

“I’m just telling you, there’s a lot of freshmen that would get rattled and (Thompson) did not do that,” Mingione said. “This is one of the toughest players I’ve ever coached, one of the most gritty players I’ve ever coached. This guy right here, he did everything he could to help our team win.”

Thompson cruised after the leadoff home run Indiana used to answer UK’s run in the top of the first, keeping the Wildcats’ season alive in the process in a 14-9 victory. UK now moves into a regional-final rematch with North Carolina State at 7 p.m. on Sunday that the Cats will need to survive to set up a winner-take-all game on Monday evening. Sunday’s game will be televised on ESPN2.

Thompson continued his late-season surge by tossing a career-high seven innings and allowing only four runs en route to his eighth win of the season, a UK freshman record. The Hoosiers would scratch out a single and a walk in the first to follow the homer, but all Thompson did to answer was retire the next 10 batters he faced.

“You just have flush it,” Thompson said. “It wasn’t my best pitch and they ambushed it. I just had to go back to my plan and keep attacking the bottom of the zone and let my defense work.”

The Selma, Indiana, native has now beaten his home-state twice this season after he pitched six quality innings on May 9.

“It’s always fun to compete against a bunch of guys you know,” Thompson said. “I know probably eight or nine of those guys. I was close with that coaching staff. So it’s always fun to compete against somebody you know. As long as you don’t make it too personal, it’s just baseball.”

That’s easier said than done though, but it’s by no means surprising to Mingione that Thompson managed to do it. There’s a reason why the first-year head coach wasted so little time meeting the pitcher who originally signed to play for Gary Henderson.

“I got hired on a Tuesday and on Friday I was meeting with him and his family,” Mingione said. “That’s the first family I went to go meet because I knew he had been drafted. I knew he had an opportunity to have a lot of money in front of him. I went and saw him pitch this summer and I came back and I told our coaching staff that this guy’s going to be a top-10 overall pick one day.”

For the game, Thompson gave up only six hits and one walk and struck out seven Hoosiers. He now has allowed just six runs over his last 30.1 innings pitched, the last seven crucially keeping UK’s bullpen fresh for Sunday and potentially Monday.

“I knew coming in we were a little short on pitching with how many guys we’ve thrown this week and with how many games we want to play going forward this week,” Thompson said. “So I just tried to do my best to compete and give my team a chance to win.”

UK’s offense backed Thompson with plenty of run support to boot. Solo homers by Marcus Carson and Kole Cottam and a run-scoring single by Connor Heady gave UK a 4-1 lead, then the Cats blew it open with six runs in the sixth on a two-run double by Tristan Pompey and a grand slam by Riley Mahan. Mahan now has eight hits with nine runs batted in so far this weekend.

The Cats will be looking for more of the same from Mahan and the rest of UK’s high-powered offense, particularly since Mingione hadn’t even named a starting pitcher at the time of his postgame press conference.

“It’s going to take a couple guys to do it,” Mingione said. “It’s not going to be one person.”

If those pitchers perform anything like Thompson did on Sunday afternoon, the Cats will be just fine.