No. 2 Kentucky Opens Lexington Regional Against Western Michigan on Friday
Second-ranked Kentucky begins its 2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament journey on Friday, hosting Mid-American Conference Tournament champion Western Michigan at noon at Kentucky Proud Park.
Kentucky (40-14) earned the number two overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament, the highest seed in program history. The four-team Lexington Regional includes Indiana State and Illinois, in addition to UK and Western Michigan.
The Cats earned just the second Southeastern Conference regular season baseball championship in school history by going 22-8 in league play. The 22 conference wins are the most that Kentucky has ever compiled in a single season. In addition, the Cats set new school records for two-year SEC win total (38), best SEC start (15-1), series wins (eight) and SEC road record (11-4).
With all of that success, Kentucky earned the right to host an NCAA Baseball Regional for just the fourth time in school history. After winning its only other SEC championship, the Cats hosted a regional in 2006. UK also hosted in 2017 and 2023, the years in which the Cats won their only regional championships in school history.
UK earned a number of All-SEC awards followed its historic season. UK head coach Nick Mingione was named SEC Coach of the Year, while designated hitter Nick Lopez was named first team All-SEC. Ryan Waldschmidt was named to the SEC second team, while second baseman Emilien Pitre, third baseman Mitchell Daly and pitcher Mason Moore were named to the SEC All-Defensive team.
The winner of Friday’s game between the Cats and the Broncos will face the winner of the Indiana State-Illinois game that will be played at 7 p.m. on Friday night. Saturday’s loser’s bracket game will be at noon ET while the winner’s bracket game will be at 6 p.m.
The Kentucky-Western Michigan game can be seen on the SEC Network. A limited number of general admission and outfield bleacher seats remain for the game. Those can be purchased at: https://ukathletics.com/ticketing/baseball/
