On overhauled Kentucky baseball roster, these players could be key to 2025 success
One weekend into the 2025 season and weather has already affected Kentucky’s baseball schedule.
The Wildcats’ weekend series in Nashville was altered before it even started with the Saturday game being moved up to a Friday doubleheader. The Sunday game was then canceled with no plans of making it up later in the season.
Then Monday, UK announced that its home opener against Morehead State scheduled for Tuesday was postponed because of cold. Kentucky’s home opener is now set for Feb. 25 against Evansville, followed by the makeup game versus Morehead on Feb. 26.
UK split the Friday doubleheader with Lipscomb. Two games are not nearly enough to make firm conclusions about Nick Mingione’s new squad, but they did at least offer a glimpse at some of the key players UK’s coach plans to feature on a squad with 29 new faces.
Here are three hitters and three pitchers to keep an eye on this season, starting when the Wildcats return to the diamond for a three-game series Friday through Sunday at Belmont.
Three UK baseball hitters to know
Devin Burkes
Described as the emotional heart of last season’s College World Series team, Burkes was expected to start his professional career last summer but elected to return to Lexington for his final season of eligibility. That decision is likely a reflection of his down year at the plate — Burkes hit just .239 with three home runs in 2024 — but he has a proven track record of contributing at key moments in previous years. The Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 Lexington NCAA Tournament should not have to carry the load at catcher alone this season with Kansas State transfer Raphael Pelletier, who was an All-Big 12 honorable mention selection last season, joining the roster. That could be especially important as Burkes works his way back from offseason surgery. Pelletier and Burkes each started one game of the Lipscomb doubleheader.
Cole Hage
A Columbia transfer, Hage announced his presence in a major way for Kentucky by going 4-for-5 with one home run, three RBI and three runs scored in UK’s 11-0 season-opening rout of Lipscomb. Hage started each of the two Friday games in left field. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association named Hage a preseason second-team All-American. The North Dakota native hit .331 with 26 home runs across three seasons at Columbia. For Kentucky to thrive this year, Hage will need to replace much of the power production lost with former Wildcat Ryan Nicholson’s departure to professional baseball.
Tyler Bell
Perhaps the most hyped freshman in Kentucky baseball history, Bell arrives on campus as the highest-drafted high school player to decide to play college baseball last summer. The Tampa Bay Rays selected him No. 66 overall in last June’s MLB draft. It is rare for high school players to stick to their college commitment when drafted in the top 10 rounds, let alone when picked as early as Bell was. Now, he will try to live up to that hype as UK’s starting shortstop. Bell did not record a hit in the two games in Nashville, but was robbed of one potential RBI by a stellar defensive play.
“There’s five tools that you’re graded at — the run, the hit, the field, the throw and the power — and he checks a lot of those boxes,” Mingione said. “You’re not a second round draft pick without those tools. And then for me, the sixth tool is makeup. And this guy is extremely competitive. He’s confident, he’s non-defensive and he was voted the hardest worker on our team.”
Three UK baseball pitchers to know
Nic McCay
Kentucky’s new Friday night starter arrives as a transfer from South Dakota State set to play his seventh year of college baseball. He missed all of the 2020, 2021 and 2023 seasons due to injury but returned to earn first-team All-Summit League honors last season with a 3.64 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 71 2/3 innings. McCay told reporters before the season he only entered the transfer portal as a joke with his father. The fact that Kentucky gave him a chance to continue playing at the highest level of college baseball should provide plenty of motivation to help the Wildcats back to postseason play. McCay pitched five scoreless innings to earn the win in his UK debut against Lipscomb.
Robert Hogan
One of UK’s most important relievers in the run to the College World Series last season, Hogan returns as a potential anchor on the staff capable of pitching in almost any situation. He will need to build some positive momentum though after failing to record an out and being charged with four wild pitches on 12 pitches thrown in his debut against Lipscomb. Hogan only received a passing mention from Mingione at his media day, so it’s unclear how much he will be counted on early in the season. Still, no returning pitcher recorded more big outs in the postseason run last year. That experience should be essential for Kentucky if Hogan can regain that form.
Ben Cleaver
Cleaver appeared in just six games as a freshman in 2024, but he helped Kentucky record one of its biggest wins of the regular season with the save in the series-clinching win at Florida. His only postseason appearance came late in the season-ending blowout loss to Florida in Omaha, but Mingione raved about his potential down the stretch last year. Now, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound Tennessee native will move into the weekend rotation. He started game two against Lipscomb, starting strong with three scoreless innings before surrendering three runs in the fourth.
“If you said, ‘Hey, Coach Minge, like, what returning pitcher has made the biggest jump?’, I would tell you, it’s been Cleaver,” Mingione said. “He’s throwing the ball as well as anybody we have right now.”
