Cats Hope for Another Chance to Play at The Cliff
The Kentucky baseball team played its final regular season game at Cliff Hagan Stadium on Sunday. The Wildcats and their fans were hoping the final game at “The Cliff” would provide memories that Big Blue fans could dream of for years.
But Mississippi State had other ideas in Sunday’s game, scoring three times in the first inning and four times in the second frame, building a 14-1 lead on their way to an 18-8 win. Kentucky tied a season high with five errors and gave up a season-high 18 runs in the loss on Sunday.
The Wildcats are hoping they will have more chances to make memories in their 50-year old stadium, and that remains a possibility. Kentucky is in the mix to host an NCAA Regional for the second straight season and the third time in program history. Kentucky had an RPI of 15 prior to Sunday’s game. Head coach Nick Mingione thinks the Wildcats will have a shot at redemption in a regional.
“I love where we’re at right now, we’re playing awesome baseball,” Mingione said. “When you look at our track record and what we’ve been able to do, we’ve got series win against three top 10 RPI teams. When you start thinking about Texas Tech, Georgia and Auburn. I’d like to know who in America has that many series wins against that many top 10 teams. I feel like we’ve done a lot of really good things.”
As for Sunday’s game, Mingione thought the Wildcats simply came up short.
“Obviously, we just didn’t do enough good things,” Mingione said. “Defensively, we were just kind of reaching for some things. We’re a dive away, a play away, a block away, a throw away. But we didn’t do enough good things to win today, unfortunately.”
But the Wildcats will not stop fighting to play at The Cliff again in the postseason.
“It’s my job to make sure that these are not the last games played on our field,” Mingione said. “That’s the way I approach this whole thing.”
Kentucky faces a mid-week game against Murray State in Paducah on Tuesday before finishing the regular season with a three-game set against Vanderbilt on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Wildcats will go from Nashville to Hoover, Alabama, for the SEC Tournament, where they will have a final chance to pick up victories that could play a key role in whether they host a regional or not.
After Sunday’s game, the Wildcats are hoping to make more, and better memories at The Cliff. The remaining games on the schedule will determine if that is possible.
