To build on 2023 NCAA tourney run, Kentucky baseball must achieve another program first
The ecstasy of clinching an NCAA Tournament regional in front of a record-sized crowd last season has raised the ceiling for Kentucky baseball.
But it also has raised the expectations, leaving the 2024 Wildcats in uncharted territory.
Since the NCAA Tournament adopted its current format in 1999, UK has never made the field in consecutive seasons. The Wildcats have only reached the tournament in back-to-back seasons under any format once in program history: 1949 and 1950.
So when informed D1Baseball.com had quoted an unnamed coach in its preseason Kentucky preview who called the Wildcats a sleeper for a College World Series berth, UK coach Nick Mingione was unsurprised.
“Until we just do it every year — year in and year out — and we just keep showing up there, maybe it’s fair,” Mingione said. “Maybe it’s fair. That’s up to us to kind of change that narrative.”
Mingione needed no reminder of Kentucky’s historic struggles to build on successful seasons — “It’s been a challenge,” he said — but he has hope the 2024 Wildcats are built to end that drought.
Kentucky’s 2024 outlook was boosted when catcher Devin Burkes, the Most Outstanding Player in the 2023 regional win, and right-handed pitcher Mason Moore, who will move into the weekend rotation after pitching 14 1/3 scoreless innings of relief in the NCAA Tournament, went undrafted despite being eligible as sophomores.
Second baseman Èmilien Pitre, shortstop Grant Smith, outfielders Ryan Waldschmidt and Nolan McCarthy and right-handed pitchers Travis Smith and Ryan Hagenow, who all played important roles in the 2023 postseason run, are also back. Those returners are boosted by the addition of 11 transfers, 13 freshmen and five players coming off redshirt seasons.
“This year’s team is a lot like last year’s team: We’re all hungry,” Moore said. “Also, returning from last year to this year, once we get to that super regional, you want to do it again. With the transfers you kind of have to get them up because they haven’t been here yet, but they’re ready. The biggest thing for us is we just love to compete.”
Mingione has been here before.
He was an assistant coach at Kentucky in 2007 when the Wildcats failed to follow a 2006 SEC championship with another NCAA Tournament berth. In Mingione’s first season as head coach in 2017, the Wildcats reached a super regional for the first time in program history, but the 2018 team missed the tournament despite opening the season ranked in the top 10 in every major poll.
Like in 2007 and 2018, Kentucky followed NCAA Tournament appearances in 2008, 2012 and 2014 with a losing record in SEC play the next season.
“Having guys that have been there, done that is so important,” Mingione said. “To be able to have some returning pieces is really important. That’s what we have this year. Does that mean that we’re going to be able to do that again? I don’t know. There’s no guarantee of that. You’re going to have to earn it every day.”
The 2018 Wildcats also boasted returning experience from the only team in program history to reach a super regional before last season.
The entire weekend rotation, led by 2017 SEC Pitcher of the Year Sean Hjelle returned — Hjelle and fellow starting pitcher Zack Thompson have since reached the major leagues — but Kentucky had to replace three of its top four hitters.
While Moore was Kentucky’s best pitcher in postseason play last season while throwing at least three innings per appearance, the current Wildcats must replace four of the five pitchers who started games in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats’ top two hitters in batting average (center fielder Jackson Gray and first baseman Hunter Gilliam) are also gone.
But unlike in 2018, the ability for players to now transfer without sitting out a season has provided Mingione a new avenue to plugging holes.
Left-handed pitcher Dominic Niman, a transfer from Central Connecticut State, was named a first-team Preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association after posting a 12-2 record with a 2.77 ERA last season. Niman is expected to open the season as UK’s Saturday starter, slotting between Smith and Moore in the weekend rotation.
Former Texas third baseman Mitch Daly brings College World Series experience to Lexington. Former Western Kentucky outfielder Ty Crittenberger and former Cincinnati first baseman Ryan Nicholson are among the other transfers expected to fill key roles.
“I thought the coaching staff did a really good job bringing the missing pieces,” Burkes said. “... We’re even better than last year.”
An unnamed coach labeling the Wildcats as a College World Series sleeper offers a glimpse at the team’s ceiling, but Kentucky lacks the preseason hype the 2018 team felt after its super-regional appearance.
Kentucky is not ranked in any of the major preseason polls. SEC coaches picked UK to finish fifth in the East Division in their preseason poll and picked just one Wildcat (second-teamer Burkes) on their preseason All-SEC teams.
That skepticism is not shared in the UK locker room where the 2023 super-regional run was used as fuel to reach greater heights throughout the offseason.
“I think before you get to that point it seems far away,” Smith said. “I think just getting to that point last year, it just makes us go into this season feeling more confident and feel like it is obtainable and that we can do it. Especially with who we have this year, I think we can do it.”
Kentucky baseball opening weekend at USC Upstate
FRIDAY
Time: 3 p.m.
Radio: UK Sports Network
Streaming: ESPN+
Pitching matchup: RHP Travis Smith vs. RHP Noah Sullivan
SATURDAY
Time: 2 p.m.
Radio: UK Sports Network
Streaming: N/A
Pitching matchup: LHP Dominic Niman vs. RHP Mathieu Curtis
SUNDAY
Time: 1 p.m.
Radio: UK Sports Network
Streaming: ESPN+
Pitching matchup: RHP Mason Moore vs. LHP Henry Proger
2024 Kentucky baseball schedule
Home games in capital letters.
Feb. 16: At South Carolina-Upstate, 3 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 17: At South Carolina-Upstate, 2 p.m.
Feb. 18: At South Carolina-Upstate, 1 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 20: MOREHEAD STATE, 4 p.m. (SEC+)
Feb. 23: 1-Washington State, 3 p.m. (D1Baseball.com)
Feb. 24: 1-Texas State, 5 p.m. (D1Baseball.com)
Feb. 25: 1-Kansas, 1 p.m. (D1Baseball.com)
Feb. 27: WESTERN KENTUCKY, 4 p.m. (SEC+)
March 1: LIPSCOMB, 4 p.m. (SEC+)
March 2: LIPSCOMB, 1 p.m. (SEC+)
March 3: LIPSCOMB, 1 p.m. (SEC+)
March 5: EASTERN KENTUCKY, 4 p.m. (SEC+)
March 6: At Eastern Kentucky, TBA (ESPN+)
March 8: KENNESAW STATE, 4 p.m. (SEC+)
March 9: KENNESAW STATE, 1 p.m. (SEC+)
March 10: KENNESAW STATE, 1 p.m. (SEC+)
March 12: MURRAY STATE, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
March 15: GEORGIA, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
March 16: GEORGIA, 2 p.m. (SEC+)
March 17: GEORGIA, 1 p.m. (SEC+)
March 19: EVANSVILLE, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
March 22: At Missouri, 7 p.m. (SEC+)
March 23: At Missouri, 4 p.m. (SEC+)
March 24: At Missouri, Noon (SEC)
March 26: MIAMI (OHIO), 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
March 29: At Mississippi, 7:30 p.m. (SEC+)
March 30: At Mississippi, 2:30 p.m. (SEC+)
March 31: At Mississippi, 2:30 p.m. (SEC+)
April 2: LOUISVILLE, 7 p.m. (SEC)
April 5: ALABAMA, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
April 6: ALABAMA, 2 p.m. (SEC+)
April 7: ALABAMA, Noon (SEC)
April 9: At Samford, 7:30 p.m.
April 11: At Auburn, 7:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
April 12: At Auburn, 7 p.m. (SEC+)
April 13: At Auburn, 3 p.m. (SEC+)
April 16: At Louisville, 6 p.m. (ACC)
April 19: TENNESSEE, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
April 20: TENNESSEE, 2 p.m. (SEC+)
April 21: TENNESSEE, 1 p.m. (SEC+)
April 26: At South Carolina, 7 p.m. (SEC+)
April 27: At South Carolina, 6 p.m. (SEC)
April 28: At South Carolina, 3 p.m. (SEC)
May 3: ARKANSAS, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
May 4: ARKANSAS, 2 p.m. (SEC+)
May 5: ARKANSAS, 1 p.m. (SEC+)
May 7: At Xavier, 3 p.m. (FloSports.com)
May 10: At Florida, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
May 11: At Florida, Noon (SEC)
May 12: At Florida, Noon (SEC)
May 14: WRIGHT STATE, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
May 16: VANDERBILT, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
May 17: VANDERBILT, 6:30 p.m. (SEC+)
May 18: VANDERBILT, 1 p.m. (SEC+)
May 21-26: SEC Tournament-2
1-Karbach Round Rock Classic at Round Rock, Texas; 2-At Hoover (Alabama) Metropolitan Stadium.