Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione welcomes the hype and a sold-out crowd at Kentucky Proud Park when the Wildcats begin a three-game series against rival Tennessee tonight.
“That’s what we want,” Mingione said Thursday. “We want that every game. There have been a lot of people who have put in a ton of work for that to happen. … This is No. 3 vs. No. 4 and two teams battling for it out (for first place in the conference).”
The third-ranked Wildcats (31-5, 14-1 Southeastern Conference) have won 19 of their past 21 games. The team’s record matches the best in school history. The Wildcats opened the 2012 season with 31 wins in the first 36 games. A sweep of the Volunteers would give Kentucky its best conference start in school history.
“The thing that I’ve appreciated about this team is really that the most important game on our schedule is the one that we are playing at that time,” Mingione said. “They really haven’t put less value in each game.
“That’s hard to get 18- and 24-year-olds to do, but they have really just done an amazing job of just focusing on the task at hand.”
Kentucky is coming off a 17-13 slugfest win over Louisville on Tuesday night at Patterson Stadium. Kentucky got a big boost from Ryan Waldschmidt who connected on a pair of home runs, laced a double and drove in six runs.
Midway through SEC play, the Wildcats have outscored their opponents 225-100 and have outscored their first 15 league opponents 142-57.
Tennessee (31-6) rolled to a 20-5 win over Bellarmine Tuesday night in its mid-week encounter. The Volunteers connected on six home runs and collected 20 hits in the easy victory over the Knights.
Mingione’s squad swept Auburn for their third straight conference sweep of the year last weekend and will be eyeing a fourth straight sweep this weekend.
One Response
The Bat Cats are on a tear! A sweep of the Tang Gang this weekend would be doubly sweet!