Competitive Cats have more to prove
Kentucky left fielder Ryan Waldschmidt prepared for an opposing at-bat while fans watched from beyond the wall during a recent game at Kentucky Proud Park. (Jeff Drummond/Cats Illustrated)
Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK
Going into the 2023 college baseball season, simply making the NCAA Tournament would have been viewed as a major accomplishment for Kentucky.
For a team picked to finish near the bottom of the rugged SEC and a coach whose future with the program was in doubt, a spot in the field of 64 would surely be enough to leave everyone happy, regaradless of how far the Wildcats advanced.
But something happened during the journey through the regular season, and Nick Mingione's club now has its sights set on even bigger goals.
The NCAA Tournament selection committee awarded Kentucky the No. 12 overall seed on Monday, and the Wildcats (36-18) will play host to the Lexington Regional beginning Friday at Kentucky Proud Park.
Joining UK will be Ball State (36-21), Indiana (41-18), and West Virginia (39-18) in the double-elimination regional format. The Cats will open against Ball State with an eye on reaching their first super-regional since 2017 -- Mingione's first year as UK head coach -- and knocking down the final barrier of being the only SEC club that has never advanced to the College World Series.
"We don't want to just be here. We want to win this thing," Kentucky grad senior pitcher Darren Williams said Monday after the brackets were revealed, "and that takes winning this weekend, and that means going out there and beating Ball State in Game 1."
"The goal is to go to Ohama," UK sophomore catcher Devin Burkes added. "This is the step before that, but we always knew we were good since the fall. We were just trying to put the pieces together."
Mingione said he's confident the Bat Cats will not be complacent entering the tourney.
"These guys just compete, and they want to win," he said. "It's one of their greatest strengths. They have a lot, but their desire to win dominates. Pretty special."
The UK boss noted that, since returning from an early exit at the SEC Tournament, the Cats have conducted some of their best practices of the season. Hard, competitive workouts. That spirit even applied to one of their off-days.
"I said, hey, what do you guys want to do? Let's do something," Mingione said. "They're like, coach, we want to go paintball. I was like, sure, of course you guys want to go compete."
The winner of the Lexington Regional will face the winner of the Baton Rouge Regional which features No. 5 overall seed LSU, Tulane, Sam Houston, and Oregon State. The highest seed will play host to the super-regional next week.
Kentucky enters the tourney with some of the strongest analytics in the field. The Cats finished with the No. 2 RPI and No. 1 strength of schedule. Only six teams own more Quad-1 wins on the season, and the Cats won eight games against the Top 10 teams in the RPI.
The Cats finished SEC play No. 1 in batting average, No. 1 in doubles, No. 1 in triples, No. 1 in steals, No. 1 in sacrifices, No. 1 in fielding percentage, No. 2 in on-base percentage, and No. 5 in both ERA and opponent batting average.
It has created a wave of confidence through the UK dugout.
"It's 27 dudes who are all in to win," Williams said.
Added Burkes: "We respect everyone but fear no one."
