New Setting, Same Approach for UK at Supers

Nick Mingione is a believer in the old cliché of “honesty is the best policy.”

In fact, he takes it a step further when it comes to his Kentucky baseball team, which is two wins away from a berth in the College World Series. “Brutal” honesty, he says, is the way to go.

So, bearing that in mind, Mingione isn’t hiding from history when it comes to a super-regional matchup between perennial power Louisville and new-kid-on-the-block UK.

“Their program’s in a different place than ours,” Mingione said. “This is their fifth (super regional) in a row. This is our first time in school history.”

That’s not meant to scare his Wildcats, who will take on the archrival Cardinals in a best-of-three series starting at noon on Friday in Louisville’s Jim Patterson Stadium. Rather, it’s meant to inspire them.

“But, at the same time, our message to our team all year has been to do things that have never been done before,” Mingione said. “So this is another opportunity.”

True as that may be, these Cats are not without relevant experience when it comes to the kind of pressure they will face this weekend. For starters, UK has thrice been positioned to compete for a championship in the last month: the final regular-season series at Florida with the SEC regular-season title on the line, the SEC Tournament and last weekend’s Lexington Regional.

The first two times around, things didn’t go so well. The Cats lost two of three at Florida and were bounced in three games in the SEC Tournament. The first two occasions had something in common, something players pledged to learn from before the third.

“We were trying to win a championship so bad,” senior shortstop Connor Heady said. “A lot of guys wanted it so bad and we were a little tight there in those situations and so when we got home, we were like, ‘Dude, no pressure, no stress.’ We just gotta play loose, play our game and give our very best and execute our game plan and we’ll live with the result at the end of the day.”

UK is living it up more than living with the result of last weekend, raucously celebrating the program’s first-ever regional championship. The Cats had their looseness to thank in large part, notably the cup cap constructed by reserve right-handed pitcher Austin Keen, the unlikely breakout star of the weekend after his many appearances on television broadcasts of UK’s five games.

“Who and what about the University of Kentucky got on ESPN?” Mingione said. “The cup hat. The guy that poured himself into the team the most. I want you to think about that.”

Mingione cited the example as proof of his philosophy that prioritizing team over self is the best path, not that his team needed convincing. He also used the cup cap a chance to hearken back to something all of the best teams he’s been a part of have had in common.

“Every great team and every championship I’ve been a part of, something special has always happened in the dugout,” Mingione said. “Every time. Mark it down.”

The cup cap, which according to Mahan has been reinforced with tape to make it more stable, will make the 80-mile journey west to Louisville. It will be a new addition from the last time the Cats were there, which happens to be the other experience they will call on this weekend.

Back on April 4, UK had just won two of three against Vanderbilt to charge into the top 10 of national polls. Riding high, the Cats were eager for the rivalry game. Too eager in fact.

“Going there, I thought we put a little bit too much pressure,” Mahan said. “We got ranked top 10 in the nation going into that week and I thought it was really hyped up and we tried to do too much. We thought we’d go in there and just slug our way out of that game and it didn’t end up the way we wanted it to.”

Two weeks later, UK avenged a 5-3 road loss to the Cardinals with a refined approach and an 11-7 victory.

“Coming back here, there was a lot of people and it was a big game, but we stayed under control and we went after our game goals rather than just trying to beat Louisville for the sake of the rivalry,” Mahan said. “We just played our brand of baseball and it ended up the way we wanted it to.”

That’s the lesson UK will carry into the weekend. The hype, the rivalry, the stakes, the atmosphere and the fans are all incidental to what really matters.

“Ultimately we just gotta stay with us, stay in our dugout and just kind of stay in our own little world and play the game, not get caught up in the fans, not get caught up in the environment but really just dial in and focus on our game goals and executing those,” Heady said. “If we do that it doesn’t matter what the fans do because they’re not out there on the field.”

To do something for the first time, the Cats know they need to do exactly what they’ve done all year and nothing more.

“We really do have nothing to lose,” Heady said. “We are going to play loose and we are going to play free because that’s who we are and that’s when we play our best baseball.”