Great Season, Cats

[STUCKNBIG10]

Has been a great ride. Home regional was a ton of fun, and had a bunch of big wins this year (LSU, Vandy, UL, etc).

UK should have been the 8 seed with a super regional at home, but just a few more wins and it would not have been in doubt.

Good things ahead for Ming and co.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Proud of them no matter what.

 

[LukaszObrzut]

I feel like not being able to use Hjelle on Friday was a big deal.
We let Drew Ellis beat us. Pretty much shut down the other UL bats. Take away the walks and not sure if there's an RBI out there aside from the HR

So, why couldn't we have got the Sat, Sun, Mon finish, jc.
I agree think we should've been the 8th seed. The matchup with UL was too juicy who has a national seed no matter how much they faltered down the stretch bc they won the ACC.

Cats had the chances to win both games. Timely hitting and base running miscues were certainly the difference.

Two top 10 nominee plays in the outfield (Both times Carson got robbed) sure didn't help our cause. Would've liked to have seen Carson with the bats in his hand late in the game yesterday but that's easy to say now, I guess.

 

[CATS1945]

It was a great season. Congratulations to the coaching staff and players. You should be proud of what you have accomplished this year This BBN fan sure is. Go CATS!!

 

[track42]

I'm very proud of those guys.Great things are expected next season.

 

[sluggercatfan]

Agree totally

I'm very proud of those guys.Great things are expected next season.

Would have been interesting to see how it would have ended if we could have gotten that 8th seed...

 

[Gabewcat]

Congratulations to Coach Mingione and the Cats on a outstanding season. Today was just the start to our future. I am bummed about losing to the corrupt dirty birds but next year I expect the Cats to host a super regional and make it to Omaha. Our starting rotation should be right there with the top rotations of the SEC.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Agree totally

Would have been interesting to see how it would have ended if we could have gotten that 8th seed...

We'd be in Omaha. No doubt in my mind.

 

[CardinalJim]

Don't usually post here but I wanted to congratulate your team, your coach and your fans on your baseball season. One of the best young teams Louisville has faced all season. With a coach like Mingione leading UK I'm fearful that Louisville will have a tough time getting players like Logan Taylor and Devin Hairston out of Lexington.

As a side note I don't understand why the tournament selection committees in basketball and now baseball feel the need to place our programs head to head. They never do that to Duke and UNC.

Good luck this football season except the last Saturdayin November.
CJ

 

[lakercat]

Don't usually post here but I wanted to congratulate your team, your coach and your fans on your baseball season. One of the best young teams Louisville has faced all season. With a coach like Mingione leading UK I'm fearful that Louisville will have a tough time getting players like Logan Taylor and Devin Hairston out of Lexington.

As a side note I don't understand why the tournament selection committees in basketball and now baseball feel the need to place our programs head to head. They never do that to Duke and UNC.

Good luck this football season except the last Saturdayin November.
CJ

They have done this to Florida and Florida State in baseball a time or two, but they won't make Duke and Carolina play because they are both from the same conference, and they play twice a year. I don't see Texas and Texas A&M being forced to play each other either. It sucks losing; I was hoping for at least 2-1, but a young team played like a young team. I wish that we could have hosted.

 

[martycat1]

Thanks for a wonderful season, and cant wait to renew my season tickets.

 

[Oldtrainer]

Congrats to the WILDCATS on a very exciting season. I think the future is very bright for our baseball program.
Watched the past two games and was very impressed by the Cards.They didn't beat themselves, had great pitching and was very good defensively!

 

[sluggercatfan]

Don't usually post here but I wanted to congratulate your team, your coach and your fans on your baseball season. One of the best young teams Louisville has faced all season. With a coach like Mingione leading UK I'm fearful that Louisville will have a tough time getting players like Logan Taylor and Devin Hairston out of Lexington.

As a side note I don't understand why the tournament selection committees in basketball and now baseball feel the need to place our programs head to head. They never do that to Duke and UNC.

Good luck this football season except the last Saturdayin November.
CJ

$$$$$$$$$$$$...played you three times this and broke attendance record every game. You're welcome!

 

[sluggercatfan]

Thanks for a wonderful season, and cant wait to renew my season tickets.

We live in Louisville and are considering the investmentnow with being retired...what kind of $$ are we looking at? attended all seven games of the regional and loved it. That last game was as good of a crowd as any game as I've ever been to with UK sports!

 

[Tskware]

Wonderful season, amazing considering what we were expecting this year, especially after opening 0-4.

UL simply had the better team than we did, had more veteran pitchers, better fielders and a veteran coach who has been there > 10 seasons. Future looks very bright for Kentucky.

 

[law1127]

Big difference in last years feeling about the team and program direction, versus this year with Mingione. Been waiting on this ,since Cohen left. Uk fans deserve a great baseball program , and they will support it big time.

 

[martycat1]

I could look it up but im too lazy this morning (hang over) but if I remember right. It was 70.00 for 2 GA tickets.

We live in Louisville and are considering the investmentnow with being retired...what kind of $$ are we looking at? attended all seven games of the regional and loved it. That last game was as good of a crowd as any game as I've ever been to with UK sports!

 

[Marine_In_VA]

 

[LukaszObrzut]

View embedded media

What a wonderful character and person to be in charge of the UK baseball program.
This stuff goes a lot farther than the result on the scoreboard.
As long as Coach Ming is here, UK baseball will continue to be on the national scene IMO.

How could you not love this guy.

 

[Kybluedude]

What a wonderful character and person to be in charge of the UK baseball program.
This stuff goes a lot farther than the result on the scoreboard.
As long as Coach Ming is here, UK baseball will continue to be on the national scene IMO.

How could you not love this guy.

Here Here! In great enthusiastic competent hands.

 

[Marine_In_VA]

What a wonderful character and person to be in charge of the UK baseball program.
This stuff goes a lot farther than the result on the scoreboard.
As long as Coach Ming is here, UK baseball will continue to be on the national scene IMO.

How could you not love this guy.

Kinda my take too when I saw that. He teared up and just had to leave.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Don't usually post here but I wanted to congratulate your team, your coach and your fans on your baseball season. One of the best young teams Louisville has faced all season. With a coach like Mingione leading UK I'm fearful that Louisville will have a tough time getting players like Logan Taylor and Devin Hairston out of Lexington.

As a side note I don't understand why the tournament selection committees in basketball and now baseball feel the need to place our programs head to head. They never do that to Duke and UNC.

Good luck this football season except the last Saturdayin November.
CJ

Agree with all.

Taylor was 2nd most impactful position player in the series and Hairston may have been #3 (both behind Ellis). You wonder if they are in Louisville because of Henderson or because of McDonnell...either way, this will become a premier rivalry soon in college baseball...and hopefully it stays to where the hate is at a minimum...UK probably did its part by not plunking Ellis on Saturday

 

[Gabewcat]

I would have plunk Ellis, he was acting like a Louisville punk.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

I would have plunk Ellis, he was acting like a Louisville punk.

I would've too for Game 1 - especially since the UK players acted so offended. They had a couple of good chances to do so, one w/2 outs and nobody on base (walked him anyways)...but now its over...they decided not to and now next game wont have any carry over venom.

 

[CHAMPCAT11]

I would have plunk Ellis, he was acting like a Louisville punk.

I'm glad we didn't throw at him. In the heat of the moment I would have tried to knock his helmet off but I would have been wrong and regretted it after the fact. His hopping / skipping display and mouthing and pointing would have pushed my button. All said and done I think both teams have great kids but if Ellis would strike out with the bases loaded to end their season I think it would serve him right.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

They have done this to Florida and Florida State in baseball a time or two, but they won't make Duke and Carolina play because they are both from the same conference, and they play twice a year. I don't see Texas and Texas A&M being forced to play each other either. It sucks losing; I was hoping for at least 2-1, but a young team played like a young team. I wish that we could have hosted.

Agree, it wasn't Louisville's fault we had to play them in the S R, it was clearly rewarding Stanford, and their retiring coach of 41 years.
We should have been the # 8 National seed, but the ' Good ole boy ' system got us again !!

 

[Comebakatz3]

Couple things:

1. I think things are made more frustrating by the fact that Texas A&M got to host a super regional thanks to them winning their own regional, and then getting the gift of Davidson beating UNC. A team that we swept and finished much higher than in the league ended up hosting a super regional while we had to go play against our rival.

2. I think a lot of the heat occurred because of the pitchers. Both Thompson and McClure were having some shouting matches and showed a whole lot of emotion after getting 3rd out strikeouts. I am not sure who started this, but I think it really was a catalyst to a lot of the emotion in the game.

3. We lost game 2 before it ever started. We lost when Coach Ming made the call to pull Austin Keen into the dugout during the national anthem standoff. Losing the standoff set the tone for the entire game.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Couple things:

3. We lost game 2 before it ever started.

I think this is true, but for the strategy of trying to knock McKay out via pitch count than via knocking his fb around. It's usually hard to really know if that was the strategy, but we had a bunch of fb hitters, take fbs in fb counts until about the 5th inning. Don't think we played the aggressive style that got us there.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I think this is true, but for the strategy of trying to knock McKay out via pitch count than via knocking his fb around. It's usually hard to really know if that was the strategy, but we had a bunch of fb hitters, take fbs in fb counts until about the 5th inning. Don't think we played the aggressive style that got us there.

I think that we did a good job against McKay early on. His control wasn't there and we made his pitch count go up pretty quickly. However, he settled into the game in about the 4th inning and we started trying too hard to run his pitch count up. Still, part of the problem was that we also weren't hitting the hittable pitches. Ellis saw two mistake pitches and he made us pay for both of them. Kentucky saw numerous mistake pitches over the course of the weekend, and we weren't able to make the opposing pitcher pay. We also swung at more high fastballs than I've ever seen us do, and that is one of my big baseball pet peeves. I know everyone loves them, but they strike out on them so damn much it irritates me.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Even his less accurate innings weren't terrible for pitch count though - 0 BB and 1 hbp, his K/BB ratio coming into the game were outrageous and even if you do knock him out they have a loaded BP. Just hate giving up a strike to a pitcher that good - sometimes all you get is that one, then he has all the power.

I am happy they at least had a plan going into the game. Big change from prior years.

 

[Dore95]

Even his less accurate innings weren't terrible for pitch count though - 0 BB and 1 hbp, his K/BB ratio coming into the game were outrageous and even if you do knock him out they have a loaded BP. Just hate giving up a strike to a pitcher that good - sometimes all you get is that one, then he has all the power.

I am happy they at least had a plan going into the game. Big change from prior years.

Yeah - the strategy of taking pitches and making the pitcher throw strikes would seem to work better against a pitcher with control problems. As you say, McKay didn't walk a single batter. And, even with that non-aggressive strategy, he still lasted longer in the game than Hjelle. Hindsight is 20/20, but it seems like a more aggressive approach was warranted.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Yeah - the strategy of taking pitches and making the pitcher throw strikes would seem to work better against a pitcher with control problems. As you say, McKay didn't walk a single batter. And, even with that non-aggressive strategy, he still lasted longer in the game than Hjelle. Hindsight is 20/20, but it seems like a more aggressive approach was warranted.

Yeah, that's the way I see it - but they stuck to it pretty well even if I didn't agree with it.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I don't think approach was such a bad problem as much as we were just bested. We made McKay throw 36 pitches in the first two innings. After that he settled in, began to throw more strikes and he got out of innings much more quickly, including a 4th (IIRC) that only had like 9 pitches. What we were fouling off, we were no longer fouling off. I think that a big part of this was when he sprinkled in the changeup.

 

[sluggercatfan]

Agree, it wasn't Louisville's fault we had to play them in the S R, it was clearly rewarding Stanford, and their retiring coach of 41 years.
We should have been the # 8 National seed, but the ' Good ole boy ' system got us again !!

Absolutely...we contributed to not getting the seed, but every pundit I heard said we should have gotten it because of our resume.

 

[CardHack]

Couple things:

2. I think a lot of the heat occurred because of the pitchers. Both Thompson and McClure were having some shouting matches and showed a whole lot of emotion after getting 3rd out strikeouts. I am not sure who started this, but I think it really was a catalyst to a lot of the emotion in the game.

You will find moving forward that this is part and parcel to the emotion of Super Regional play. Pointing to your dugout after getting an extra basehit, charging out of the dugout and mobbing a teammate after he scores from second, fist pumping pitchers after killing a rally with a late inning strikeout...it's not exclusive to Louisville. Heck you had the same dynamics at work before the LSU/Arkansas SEC title game. It's what you get in the Supers; 18 to 22 year old kids with testosterone levels none of us have seen in our lifetimes under that level of pressure? It's going to happen, and really it should given how much pressure they're under.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

The Ellis hr was a big time pimp job and out of the norm. He has the right to do it - but he also could've been plunked and he would've understood 100%.

Turning back on the field to your dugout and running 70 ft w/ur bat is meant to be disrespectful. When you hit it 400 ft you can do it though.

 

[Comebakatz3]

You will find moving forward that this is part and parcel to the emotion of Super Regional play. Pointing to your dugout after getting an extra basehit, charging out of the dugout and mobbing a teammate after he scores from second, fist pumping pitchers after killing a rally with a late inning strikeout...it's not exclusive to Louisville. Heck you had the same dynamics at work before the LSU/Arkansas SEC title game. It's what you get in the Supers; 18 to 22 year old kids with testosterone levels none of us have seen in our lifetimes under that level of pressure? It's going to happen, and really it should given how much pressure they're under.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it is exclusive to Louisville. I just think that the blow up was brewing a bit before the Ellis home run. I think that it kind of started with the pitchers. Again, I don't remember who was the first pitcher to really have an over the top strikeout celebration, but I remember them both having them before Ellis had his home run. So, one of the teams may have taken an early exception, or been annoyed by those celebrations. Maybe Kentucky did it first and Louisville kind of mocked them and did it back, and then Ellis hit the home run and celebrated a bit too much, kind of in a continuance of that mock celebration and UK took some offense to it. That sort of thing happens in high intensity games. I'm not mad about it. haha

 

[sluggercatfan]

Couple things:

1. I think things are made more frustrating by the fact that Texas A&M got to host a super regional thanks to them winning their own regional, and then getting the gift of Davidson beating UNC. A team that we swept and finished much higher than in the league ended up hosting a super regional while we had to go play against our rival.

2. I think a lot of the heat occurred because of the pitchers. Both Thompson and McClure were having some shouting matches and showed a whole lot of emotion after getting 3rd out strikeouts. I am not sure who started this, but I think it really was a catalyst to a lot of the emotion in the game.

3. We lost game 2 before it ever started. We lost when Coach Ming made the call to pull Austin Keen into the dugout during the national anthem standoff. Losing the standoff set the tone for the entire game.

CB3...#'2&3? Didn't didn't get to watch or listen due to my grandson's hs graduation.

 

[Comebakatz3]

CB3...#'2&3? Didn't didn't get to watch or listen due to my grandson's hs graduation.

#3: was something they showed on the TV broadcast. Basically, Austin Keen and a Louisville player continued to stand at attention just outside of the dugouts with their hands over their hearts as though the national anthem was continuing to play. After so long (not sure how long) Coach Mingione told Keen to get into the dugout, and the Louisville team celebrated their victory in the game within the game.

#2: In the first game Ellis hit a three run home run off Logue and turned to the UL dugout and was cheering it up and jumping up and down and was just over the top excited (can't blame him). When he went to home it looked as though Cottam said something to him and Cottam, Logue, and he kind of yelled at one another and Ellis somewhat had to be restrained. Wasn't a big escalation by any means, but just some aggressive behavior. If I had to guess Cottam gave him some hell for showing up his pitcher and Ellis took exception to it. However, before that, the two starters were both extremely animated on third out strikeouts. Both of them extremely over the top celebrations. In fact, I don't know that I have ever seen Thompson celebrate before and he was even flexing and yelling and kind of dancing after his third out strikeouts. McClure did the same thing. However, I don't know if Thompson did an over the top celebration first, or if McClure did it. Both of them, IMO, were much more than your standard yell and fist pump after a strike out. They were extremely animated.