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Kentucky baseball is thankful to be hosting a NCAA Regional but the Wildcats have even bigger aspirations.
“We don’t want to just be here. We want to win this thing,” Kentucky grad senior pitcher Darren Williams said Monday. “That takes winning this weekend. That means going out there and beating Ball State in Game 1.”
Kentucky plays Ball State (36-21) at 1 p.m. Friday while West Virginia (39-18) and Indiana (41-18) play at 7 in the double elimination tournament. Kentucky is the No. 12 overall seed in the tourney.
Kentucky coach Nick Mingione, who took UK to a super regional in 2017 in his first year as head coach, said playing at home is nice but does not guarantee successBal. West Virginia was second in the ACC and under consideration to host a regional while Indiana is a competitive foe Kentucky regularly plays.
Kentucky is the only Southeastern Conference team never to reach the College World Series but despite a ninth-place finish in the SEC has numbers to give it confidence going into postseason play.
Kentucky finished the season with the No. 2 RPI in the country and No. 1 strength of schedule. Only six teams had more Quad-1 wins and UK won eight games against teams in the top 10 of the RPI.
Kentucky led the SEC in batting average, doubles, triples, steals, sacrifices and fielding percentage. It was second in on-base percentage and fifth in both ERA and opponent batting average.
“The goal is to go to Omaha,” UK sophomore catcher Devin Burkes, one of the team’s best offensive players, said Monday. “This is the step before that, but we always knew we were good since the fall. We were just trying to put the pieces together.”
Mingione is confident Kentucky will bounce back from an opening-round loss in the SEC Tournament to Alabama.
“These guys just compete, and they want to win. It’s one of their greatest strengths. They have a lot, but their desire to win dominates. Pretty special,” the UK coach said.
The winner of the Lexington Regional would advance to play the Baton Rouge Regional winner. That region includes No. 5 LSU, Tulane, Sam Houston and Oregon State. If UK advances and LSU loses, Kentucky would host the Super Regional since the highest seeded team gets to host.
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Lexington is the city to be at this weekend along with the NCAA baseball regional is KY high school baseball and softball state tournament which my high school alumni Henderson. Co is playing in both state tournaments. Then a music festival and the high school track and field state track is also held there as well.