UK Athletics Photo
Going to the College World Series for the first time last season was a historic moment for the Kentucky baseball program. However, coach Nick Mingione and his players want more this season.
“The next step is to win it. That would be the next thing, that’s the next thing to knock down,” Mingione said Tuesday.
Kentucky has been to three Super Regionals in the last eight years under Mingione to raise the expectations. Kentucky is ranked in the top 25 going into the season despite having 29 new players — freshmen and transfers — on the roster.
“It’s good to make it but that wall has been knocked down and now, we’ve got to win the whole thing. One wall knocked down, another one to go,” Mingione said. “We had a super competitive fall, guys fighting for a lot of spots.”
The Kentucky coach believes the winning culture that has been built will carry over this season.
“We’ve had success the last three years, the last two seasons (have been) record-breaking seasons for really three reasons – talent, people and culture,” Mingione said. “When I say talent, it starts with talented players and I’ve hired a super-talented staff.
“As far as people go, we have identified the right people that not only want to make themselves better players but more importantly, they want to help Kentucky win. Culture has been really big.”
Mingione believes his team has the “right competitive spirit” and the UK staff spent time in the fall teaching the team how to win.
“Those are the two phases that every team must go through. Number one, they have to learn how to compete and number two, they have to learn how to win and we spent a lot of time teaching them how to do those two things,” Mingione said.
