Cats blank Indiana State, win Lexington Regional​

Kentucky shortstop Grant Smith celebrated as the Wildcats recorded the final out of Sunday's Lexington Regional championship against Indiana State. (Jeff Drummond/Cats Illustrated)

Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Kentucky is going back to the NCAA Baseball super regionals.

Only this time, the Wildcats will not be going anywhere.

Second-seeded Kentucky defeated Indiana State 5-0 on Sunday in the championship game of the Lexington Regional, and by virtue of that victory will be playing host to a super regional next week at Kentucky Proud Park for the first time in program history.

The Wildcats (43-14) will face the winner of the Corvallis Regional -- either 15-seed Oregon State or UC Irvine -- and are just two wins away from reaching the College World Series. UK remains the last SEC program that has never made the trip to Omaha.

"Proud of our guys," said Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione, who has guided his third team to a super regional since taking the job in 2017. "... To win three of these in seven seasons, after having zero in, I don't know, a hundred and how many years, I'm just so thankful for past players, coaches, staff, and everybody. This one's for you, Big Blue Nation.”

“We are not done,” the UK boss added in his postgame address to the fans who stayed to celebrate with the Cats.

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I’ve enjoyed this gameshow for past 41 years. Vanna will continue for a couple of years. Curious to see if show will still be as popular.

Guy we mentioned yesterday came through with a big camp. Kentucky will be in a good position if they decide to push hard.

Was wondering how many 3PA we'd ideally take this season and the volume for each player etc. so took a look at BYU's volume last year, our roster's previous attempts and scaled them down to possible minutes and proportion projections to come up with some idea:

BYU Last Year Per Game:

• 32 3PA (2nd in nation); 11.1 3PM (3rd in nation)
• For comparisons sake, we took 24 threes a game last year

Roster Totals: Last Year Per Game

• Robinson (26.4 mpg, 6.9 3PA, 35.4%) | BYU 3PA = 32 | 21.5% Proportion
• Brea (29.1 mpg, 6.1 3PA, 49.8%) | Dayton 3PA = 23.5 | 25.9% Proportion
• Carr (32.5 mpg, 2.8 3PA, 37.1%) | Wake Forest 3PA = 21.8 | 12.8% Proportion
• Oweh (24.9 mpg, 1.7 3PA, 37.7%) | Oklahoma 3PA = 21.6 | 7.8% Proportion
• Kriisa (33.4 mpg, 6.3 3PA, 42.4%) | West Virginia 3PA = 20.8 | 30.2% Proportion
• Almoner (32 mpg, 7.4 3PA, 39.4%) | Farleigh Dickinson 3PA = 25.4 | 29.1% Proportion
• Butler (27.5 mpg, 2.9 3PA, 30.2%) | San Diego St 3PA = 22.2 | 13% Proportion

Proportion Projections (Scaled for Increase/Decrease in Minutes)

• Robinson (6.8 3PA) | (2.4 3PM)
• Brea (7 3PA) | (3.48 3PM)
• Carr (3.25 3PA) | (1.2 3PM)
• Oweh (2.5 3PA) | (.94 3PM)
• Kriisa (6.2 3PA) | (2.63 3PM)
• Almoner (3 3PA) | (1.18 3PM)
• Butler (3.25 3PA) | (.97 3PM)

TOTAL = 32 3PA | 12.8 3PM

Using the percentage totals for how every player shot from three last season, that would put us as the number one 3PM team in the country this past season. (Wildcards are Chandler, Noah and Perry)

Cats hang on for 10-8 win in NCAA opener​

Kentucky's James McCoy watched his second-inning home run sail over the wall in right field at Kentucky Proud Park. (Jeff Drummond/Cats Illustrated)

Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Early offense proved to be vital for Kentucky on Friday in the opening game of the NCAA Lexington Regional.

James McCoy bashed a two-run homer and smacked an RBI double to help the Wildcats build an 8-0 lead after four innings at Kentucky Proud Park. Little did anyone know at the time how pivotal those swings would be as second-seeded UK was pushed to the wire by Western Michigan in a 10-8 victory.

The Broncos scored five runs in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth to make the predominantly blue-clad crowd at KPP uneasy, then loaded the bases in the ninth inning to induce full-blown anxiety.

Kentucky reliever Robert Hogan eased their collective fear by getting WMU's Grady Mee to fly out harmlessly to right field with potential tying and go-ahead runs on base.

"We've been in these kind of games for 15 weeks," UK head coach Nick Migione said. "I thought our guys absolutely responded."

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SIAP somewhere. Shouldn’t be so difficult to release. Admittedly, I’m not familiar with how the tournament works.

This whole deal reminds me a lot of the Outback Bowl in 1998. We had not been to a NYD bowl game since 1951 season or so, and the whole fan base was excited beyond belief to finally get to play a warm weather bowl game vs. a traditional power like Penn State. Even though we lost, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and will remember it always. IIRC, that game and then the next year at the MCB in Nashville were the last two bowl games my parents ever attended.

This baseball season has seemed very similar to me. Never been to the CWS, whole year has been a total blast. And although I want to win it, just going to enjoy the experience and not feel anything but elation win or lose.

Even though he was not a baseball fan, I would have loved to take my Dad to these games, think he would have had a great time. As it is, I am taking my Mom on the trip, staying with my uncle and her older brother, 92 years young, in Lincoln. Going to be memorable however it turns out.

I've been out of the computer game for a while. I used to keep up with all of that stuff. I am trying to hold off on getting a new PC/Laptop and just upgrade the current laptop I own. The only upgrades I can really do are the RAM and M.2 SSD. I currently have 12GB of RAM and only a 256GB M.2.

Current Processor - 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1155G7 @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz
Current RAM - 12GB DDR 4 (?) 3200Mhz
Current M.2 - NVMe SK hynix BC711 HFM256GD3JX013N

According to my research, that processor supports up to 64GB of RAM. So I had this in mind.

This seems to be a compatible M.2.

Since the laptop only has one storage device (the M.2), I guess this would work to clone the current drive and swap it out.

Any issues with what I'm trying to do? I appreciate any help I can get.

Guys been a staple in Lexington forever. Growing up eating at Joe’s and watching the games, sad time. Who here is buying it!

4.55 is the highest I saw today -Indianapolis

This night and trip to Omaha is for you my friend RIP

What games do we have locked in for next year, off the top of my head:

Champions Classic (duke)
CBS Classic (osu?)
Gonzaga in Seattle
Louisville @ Rupp
SEC/ACC Challenge- probably on the road
St. John’s (?)

SEC should be tough once again and fresh match ups with Texas and Oklahoma.

Anything else missing here? Anything you’d like to see, that’s a pretty good start right there for a schedule.

I’d bet we get something with BYU at some point, maybe not next season though. Indiana series starts back up the following season, too.