Kentucky baseball players got to celebrate after clinching a share of the SEC championship at home. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky baseball went from unranked going into the season to sharing the Southeastern Conference title with Tennessee and being ranked as high as No. 2 nationally this season.
Kentucky coach Nick Mingione admits he thought going into the season that “we had a chance to be good” because of the returning players he had. Kentucky went 22-8 in SEC play and 39-12 overall.
“I was a little surprised we were not a top 25 preseason team,” Mingione said. “You don’t know how the guys in the transfer portal will be.
“I did not think we could win the league because of the difficulty of the league but I knew we had a bunch of guys back who were good strong pieces. Then you bring all these guys in (from the transfer portal) trying to build something and you just don’t know for sure how it will all work out.
“It was clear to me that the guys who came back were super hungry. Guys who had been in our program got better, the transfers fit well and this is what you have.”
2 Responses
They might have been hungry but played well fed. Hard to be confident they will perform or maybe even deserve to be a #1 seed after losing 2-3 at the Hoover. Go Cats!!
Despite what the bat Cats accomplished in the regular season, they still don’t believe they can win on the bigger stages of the SEC and NCAA tourneys.