Team Effort Leading to Success for Baseball Wildcats

The Kentucky Baseball Wildcats won their second straight SEC series of the season by topping Ole Miss 4-1 on Saturday at Cliff Hagan Stadium. After falling in Thursday’s series opener, the Wildcats were able to win on Friday, then took Saturday’s rubber game, meaning that Kentucky has now won five of six conference games to start the season.

The standout for the team this season, at least so far, has been…everyone?

“We’ve been telling our team this – the strength of our team is our team,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said after Saturday’s victory. “It’s taken a lot of guys to get a lot of these wins. You look at how many guys we played today, you look at how many guys we played yesterday.”

On Saturday, it was Justin Lewis pitching seven strong innings, combined with some timely hitting and strong defense that led Kentucky to its 10th win in the last 11 games. 

“The thing I was proud of about him was that he didn’t’ walk a guy,” Mingione said of Lewis. “He didn’t walk a guy and didn’t hit a guy. And when you throw that many innings, and you don’t allow a ton of free bases, that helps. He’s a premier competitor, we have confidence in him and he keeps getting better.”

Zach Reks was the only Wildcat with more than one hit, going 2-for-2 with a run batted in. But after Saturday’s game, Reks only wanted to talk about the team.

“Honestly, it’s a team effort,” Reks said. “I really don’t think about individual performances, just the team. We all did great, we all pitched in. It’s just a great win.”

The 19th-ranked Wildcats were able to win a series against Ole Miss for the first time since 2013. In fact, after Ole Miss won Thursday’s series opener, the Rebels had beaten Kentucky eight straight times, dating back to that 2013 series.

But with Mingione at the helm, the culture around the Kentucky program has completely changed. Reks can see it in his teammates.

“Stick with each other, stick together,” Reks said of the team’s thinking. “We’re just playing good together. If someone makes a mistake, someone else picks him up. Honestly, whoever we put out there is going to have the same mentality. We’re all bought into the process, and it’s really helped us out.”

Mingione knows that a couple of areas can make a big difference in any team, especially this one.

“It all starts with pitching, our pitching and our defense,” Mingione said. “And our starting pitching this weekend was phenomenal, and that allowed us to get off to a great start.”

Since losing four straight to start the season, Kentucky has now won 18 of its last 21 games. Mingione knew his team would bounce back if they would stick with the plan that the head coach and his staff had for the team. 

“We lost the first four games of the year by five runs,” Mingione said. “They keep competing and they keep learning. Since I’ve been here, they have not given away one day. And when you have a group of young men who do that, you can do special things.”

With a 5-1 start in league play, this year’s Wildcats are already doing special things.