Kentucky players console each other after Sunday's heartbreaking season-ending loss. (Vicky Graff Photo)
There was never really a time during the season when any lead was a safe lead for the Kentucky baseball team and that certainly was true again in the season-ending 13-12 loss to West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament Clemson Regional title game.
Kentucky had a 12-7 lead with two outs in the eighth inning when West Virginia scored six runs and held on in the ninth for a 13-12 win.
Even though UK (31-26) won 30 or more games for the fourth straight year, the Cats had numerous late-inning collapses that doomed any chance to get back to the College World Series for a second straight year. Kentucky also had numerous injuries, a roster with 30 new players and a difficult schedule.
Still, Kentucky had the lead in 15 SEC games that it lost and coach Nick Mingione knows UK again let a victory slip away in Sunday’s loss.
“I will be thinking about this game and these moments for a long time. When you have a team down, you have to put them away,” said Mingione.
However, the coach also could not hide his pride for what his team did in what was expected to be a rebuilding year after UK’s first College World Series appearance in 2024.
“This team, very few people even gave this team a chance … leadership from our seniors was absolutely incredible and I am thankful for the time they put into this program,” Mingione said in his postgame press conference.”
He said the team’s “buy-in” considering he lost the weekend starting pitching, bullpen stopper, bullpen closer and a lot of positional guys off last year’s team was incredible.
“There was not a lot of people who gave them a chance (to win). I think back to what this team has done and they literally bought into everything we were doing,” Mingione said. “This senior class, those 12 guys … no way we make it this far without them.”
