Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky had a school-record 46 wins. Kentucky shared the Southeastern Conference regular season title for only its second SEC title. Kentucky hosted its first Super Regional and earned its first College World Series berth.
So even though the season ended Wednesday with a 15-4 blowout loss to Florida — a team UK beat in a regular-season series — in Omaha, it was still a remarkable season.
“This is where you want to end your season. This is not how you want to end your season but this is where you want to end your season,” Kentucky’s Nick Mingione, the national coach of the year, said after the game. “Congrats to Florida. They played a great game.
“Just so proud of our group of men. I mean, our team really is a group of men. That’s what they are. They’re unbelievable in every sense of the word. And they made history.”
However, No. 2 Kentucky came to Omaha hoping to win a national title, not just win one game.
“So this hurts. It hurts a lot because this team is fully capable of accomplishing our goal of national champions, but that wasn’t the case this year. That’s not what the Lord had planned,” Mingione said.
“But so proud of these guys for the way they represented themselves, our baseball program and our institution. Just amazing, amazing group of men. And they are winners in every sense of the word, every sense of the word. I like to call them dogs. That’s what they are, a bunch of dogs. Proud of them.”
How would Mingione like this special team to be remembered?
“As winners. I’ve been telling everybody all year, they’re just winners, literally in everything they do, they just — you can coach them any way. You challenge them; they respond. You love on them; they love you back. You get on to them; they look you in the eye and say, yes, sir,” the Kentucky coach said.
“They literally have done everything from the way — we talk about the student/person/player, in our program, they’ve crushed it in the classroom. They’re unbelievable. Like our staff members that have children just telling me yesterday, ‘Coach, watch these guys get on the floor and play with our kids and do all this.’ They’re just winners.
“And it’s something we talk about in our program all the time. We talk about being a family. We were that. Boy, that should have just screamed out.
“We talk about winning, but not just on the field, in every area of their life I want them to be winners. The way they go about their business, the way they treat their teammates, the way they go about their diet, the way they approach the weight room, the way they treat women, all of this has to do with winning. They’ve been unbelievable. Then their development is really important to us.
“I can look you all in the eye today and tell you, we’ve done the best job we could to develop in every single area of their life, and therefore they’ve made history, and I just want everybody to know what kind of winners they are.”
Kentucky-Florida Baseball
Photos by Vicky Graff
2 Responses
Winners!!! Yes!!! Thanks!!!
Congrats to players who gave their best and became model student-athletes-citizens along the way, sharing their high standard of humanity with adults & children.
These are real winners. A special top of the hat to Nick for leading them while embracing the standards set by the Lord Jesus, Who has cared for them & will continue to do so!
I was disappointed but encouraged by a special friend who has enjoyed the ride!
This may be a little harsh, but I get same feeling anytime big blue gets embarrassed on big stage. Yes, it was one He– of a season and we showed the baseball word that we earned the right to go to Omaha. We also showed that we didn’t have the hitting or pitching to advance there. UF had studs on the mound and in the box. They acted and played like they belonged and we were all reminded that it still is "how you finish". We did outperform them during the season. I am not a baseball junkie but do not understand how you put a pitcher out there that had earned a over 15 ERA in his last 17 innings pitched and expect a different type of result. Still sounds like the definition of insanity. Let’s hope the foundation and building blocks will continue and enable us to return to Omaha.