The 2022-23 University of Kentucky sports year began last fall with a silly spat between the school’s two most high-profile coaches over whether UK was a “basketball school” or a “football school” before each embarked on disappointing seasons.
Then the year ended, or could have ended, with you wondering if maybe, just maybe the University of Kentucky is actually becoming — are you ready for this — a “baseball school.”
It sure looked like one this weekend when not one but two record crowds — 6,049 on Saturday for Kentucky-Indiana; then a chart-topping 6,796 on Monday night for the Lexington Regional title game between the Cats and Hoosiers — packed Kentucky Proud Park.
Final score: Kentucky 4, Indiana 2.
That’s right, no disappointing season here. Not for these Cats. Talk about beating expectations. Back in February, UK Coach Nick Mingione’s seat could not have been much hotter. Four months later, he was dog-piling it with his Cats once they had punched a ticket to Baton Rouge to play LSU next weekend in an NCAA super regional.
“That’s my favorite thing to do as a coach,” Mingione said afterward.
That they did it against the rival Hoosiers was icing on the celebratory cake. Spoiler alert: These two don’t like each other. Never mind that the two schools no longer play in football or basketball, the baseball rivalry has plenty of rancor to cover all the bases.
When Indiana beat Kentucky 5-3 on Saturday night, the Cats took offense when IU brought its “Celebration Chain” on the field after a home run, which earned the violating Hoosier an ejection and one-game suspension. In Sunday’s rematch, nine times Kentucky batters were hit by Indiana pitchers during UK’s 16-6 blowout win, the blame for which was a point of disagreement during a contentious postgame handshake between the coaches.
Kentucky-Indiana baseball dispute over scheduling
Monday night’s postgame featured very few handshakes. The Cats celebrated on the field. The Hoosiers sat in their dugout and glared. When Indiana Coach Jeff Mercer was asked in the postgame press conference about the possibility of Kentucky-Indiana becoming a weekend series in the future, Mercer quickly closed the door.
“No, Kentucky canceled the series last year,” Mercer said. “Kentucky and Indiana is no longer a series. They called and canceled it. It’s done.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” UK AD Mitch Barnhart said. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it one way or the other. I don’t get involved in the baseball scheduling piece. I sort of leave it up to Nick and let him do that.”
Here’s what we do know: The Cats repeated their 2017 trick, winning three straight games to earn the second super regional appearance in program history. And they did so with outstanding pitching.
Kentucky’s pitching earns super regional berth
True, after the Friday loss to IU, the Cats scored a combined 26 runs in two Saturday elimination games. For the weekend, however, they pitched two shutouts — 4-0 over Ball State on Friday; 10-0 over West Virginia on Saturday — then held the Big Ten’s third-best offense to two runs in the winner-take-all game Monday night.
“By the time we started SEC play, it dawned on me that this was as deep a pitching staff as I’ve had here,” Mingione said. “That’s saying a lot because we’ve had a lot of really good arms.”
Perhaps none better than Mason Moore. The sophomore from Morehead followed his five perfect innings against Ball State on Friday by shutting down the Hoosiers with five innings of three-hit, scoreless baseball on Monday night.
“He’s really good,” Mercer admitted.
“He’s an unbelievable athlete,” Mingione said. “I told you guys about that about him, like dunking, doing everything, whew. And I’m thankful he’s a Wildcat. I believe what (teammate Darren Williams) said, he’ll be playing baseball a long time.”
Speaking of which, Kentucky baseball is still playing.
While Kentucky football was blanked in its bowl game and Kentucky basketball was knocked out of the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky baseball is two wins away from its first College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
There’s no argument about that.
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