‘That’s our expectation.’ Five things to know before UK begins 2022 baseball season.
Nick Mingione knows what the expectations are for Kentucky baseball, and he’s intent on delivering on them in 2022.
The Wildcats baseball program hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2017, when Mingione piloted UK to the super regionals for the first time in program history in Mingione’s first season in Lexington.
But the three full seasons since (the 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19) have seen UK fall short of the postseason, with first-game exits in the Southeastern Conference Tournament in both 2018 and 2021.
The Wildcats didn’t qualify for the league tournament in 2019.
But with a bevy of Division I transfers, a star at shortstop and the entire weekend pitching rotation returning this season, Kentucky baseball may be primed for a return to the postseason.
The 2022 season begins for the Wildcats this weekend, with a three-game series Friday through Sunday at Jacksonville State University in Alabama.
Here’s what you need to know before the UK baseball season begins.
1. Kentucky’s turnaround will have to start in the SEC. While Mingione began his head coaching tenure with a flourish, things have sputtered since.
After recording 43 wins overall and 19 wins in SEC play during Mingione’s first season as head coach in 2017, UK has averaged just 30 wins overall and 11 wins in SEC play in the three complete seasons since.
UK hasn’t won an SEC Tournament game since that 2017 season.
The SEC is widely acknowledged as the premier conference for college baseball, and UK has found it difficult to put together consistent success in league play of late.
Since 2014, UK has just two seasons in which it finished above .500 in SEC games.
But Mingione said during the team’s media day this month that he expects a special season from this year’s Wildcats.
“I wouldn’t say pressure, that’s our expectation,” Mingione, who stresses the complete student-athlete experience, said of returning to the NCAA Tournament. “We want to do things that have never been done before. ... That is our full expectation, is to not only make the postseason but to go on a run.”
This year’s Kentucky team features 14 players that are listed as seniors or graduate students.
2. The entire weekend pitching rotation returns for UK. One of the reasons Mingione is bullish about his team’s potential success this season is what UK returns on the mound: Its entire weekend starting pitching rotation.
UK’s top four pitchers by innings pitched from last season — Cole Stupp (75 2/3), Zack Lee (57 2/3), Sean Harney (46 1/3) and Daniel Harper (31) — all return for the Wildcats in 2022.
Additionally, all four UK pitchers who made six or more starts last season — Stupp (13), Lee (13), Ryan Hagenow (seven) and Harney (six) — also all return.
Graduate student Mason Hazelwood, who started five games last season before needing Tommy John surgery, will begin this season in a bullpen role.
UK returns each pitcher that won an SEC game (12 wins in total) last season.
The Wildcats boast one of their deepest pitching staffs in recent history, and plan to use that to their advantage.
“They consider themselves the tip of the spear,” Mingione said, noting this is as much pitching experience as UK has had since 2018. “It gives me a lot of peace heading into the season with those guys.”
3. After an impressive summer on Cape Cod, shortstop Ryan Ritter is ready to impress. Ryan Ritter is considered one of the top defensive shortstops in the country, and has garnered plenty of attention leading up to his second season with UK.
Ritter began his college career in 2020 at John A. Logan College in Illinois before joining UK last season, when he started all 52 games at shortstop for the Cats and had the only four-hit game of any UK player.
Ritter didn’t make an error over his final 25 games last season.
After spending the summer playing in the famed Cape Cod Baseball League, where he ranked fourth in the league in regular season batting average (.330), Ritter is back in Lexington with plenty expected of him.
“A wizard at shortstop. There’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t keep impressing us,” Mingione said of Ritter.
“I kind of just made everything simple,” Ritter said of his hitting approach while playing in the Cape Cod Baseball League. “Widened my base, got my hands lower to the zone, tried to be more simple. Ever since I did that, baseball changed for me, the way I’m hitting. I felt more confident and was able to compete better and see the ball better.”
He was named a preseason Second Team All-SEC selection by the league’s coaches and was a Third Team Preseason All-American as named by D1Baseball.
Ritter was also named to the preseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award, which honors the nation’s best amateur player in the college or high school ranks.
Ritter is considered a top prospect for this year’s MLB Draft.
4. Eight Division I transfers joined UK this offseason. In an effort to return UK to postseason prominence, Mingione made extensive use of the transfer portal.
Eight players who formerly played at other Division I schools elected to join UK for the 2022 season, four pitchers and four position players:
Pitcher Tyler Bosma (Miami of Ohio), pitcher Magdiel Cotto (South Carolina), outfielder Adam Fogel (Hawaii), pitcher and Lafayette High School alumnus Tyler Guilfoil (Lipscomb), infielder Daniel Harris IV (Eastern Kentucky), outfielder Hunter Jump (Arizona State), outfielder John Thrasher (Hartford) and pitcher Darren Williams (Eastern Kentucky).
“We want to have good, competitive people that understand when you come to Kentucky you’re going to be loved, but also you’ll be held accountable,” Mingione said. “We just want guys that are committed to getting better in all areas of their life.”
In particular, Mingione will be expecting production from Thrasher.
The fifth-year outfielder set the school record for career stolen bases at Hartford (69) and was named the America East Player of the Year last season after batting .369 with 45 hits and recording an on-base percentage of .470.
Thrasher has a .991 career fielding percentage and was named a Third Team Preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association prior to the 2022 season.
“His speed is game-changing,” Mingione said of Thrasher, who ranked third in the country in stolen bases last season with 37 in 36 games.
“He is our best defensive center fielder, hands down.”
5. UK will play 36 home games, 22 games against NCAA Tournament teams this season. While UK won’t play defending NCAA champion Mississippi State during the regular season, the Wildcats will still be tested.
Kentucky will play 22 games against teams that made the 2021 NCAA Tournament, including a pair of noteworthy three-game home series against 2021 national runner-up Vanderbilt (April 22-24) and 2021 NCAA Tournament national seed TCU (March 4-6).
During non-conference play, UK will face in-state opposition in the form of Western Kentucky, Murray State, Morehead State, Eastern Kentucky, Louisville and Bellarmine.
In total, UK will play 36 games in Lexington at Kentucky Proud Park, starting with a home game on Feb. 22 against Southeast Missouri State.
Kentucky’s non-conference rivalry games this season include a trip to Indiana on March 15 and a home-and-home series with Louisville. UK and U of L will play in Lexington on April 5 and in Louisville on April 19.
UK and Louisville split the series last year, with each team winning on the road.
UK’s 30-game SEC schedule features road series at defending SEC champion Arkansas, Texas A&M, Missouri, Florida and South Carolina, and home series against Georgia, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Auburn.
The annual SEC Tournament will be played from May 24-29 in Hoover, Alabama. The Cats have never won the SEC Tournament.
UK will have nine games broadcast on national television this season between ESPNU and the SEC Network.
Season opener
Kentucky at Jacksonville State
Where: Jacksonville, Ala.
When: 4 p.m. Friday
Live broadcast: ESPN Plus
