













By Keith Taylor

KyForward Senior Sports Writer

For the first time in more than a decade, the Kentucky baseball team will open the NCAA baseball tournament at home.

The Wildcats (39-20) missed out on landing one of eight coveted national seeds, but Kentucky will host a four-team regional beginning Friday at Cliff Hagan Stadium in a four-team, double-elimination tournament.

Top-seeded Kentucky takes on No. 4 seed Ohio at noon, followed by No. 2 seed Indiana and N.C. State in the second game at 7 p.m. The tournament will continue at noon and 7 p.m. Saturday and concludes Sunday. The winner advances to the Super Regional set for June 9-12 at various sites. Should Louisville and Kentucky advance, the two rivals would play in a best-of-three series in Louisville.

Despite the team’s surge on the diamond during the past 20 years, the Wildcats have yet to advance to the Super Regionals, a feat Kentucky will be looking to accomplish this weekend.

“We’re looking to do things in this program that have never been done before,” Kentucky ace pitcher Sean Hjelle said. “Obviously, we’ve hosted a regional before, but we’ve never won one. That’s our focus right now.”

Despite a successful season in Mingione’s first year at the helm, which included 19 victories against Southeastern Conference foes, the Wildcats failed to gain national recognition from the selection committee, especially following a letdown during the last two weeks, a 10-game day road stretch that included four losses in a six-game span.

“The thing I wish was I could be in those meetings and just hear what’s important to them,” Mingione. “I wish I could do that. Unfortunately, I was not in there, and it was one of those deals where we didn’t do enough, apparently, to earn one of those and I’m at peace with that.”

Kentucky had an RPI ranking of 9 after collecting six wins against Top 25 teams and a total of 17 victories against teams ranked in the Top 50, but the Wildcats lost four of their last six games, hurting the team’s chances of landing a national seed. Those seeds were snagged by SEC members Florida and LSU, along with Oregon State, North Carolina, Texas Tech, Texas Christian, Louisville and Stanford.

Despite the reward of opening the tourney at home, Mingione wished the selection committee would have looked at the big picture instead of dwelling on the team’s lack of success at Florida and in the conference tournament.

“I don’t know if disappointing is the right word,” Mingione said.

However, instead of dwelling on the past, Mingione and his players are looking toward the future and the excitement of opening the NCAA Tournament at The Cliff. Mingione was a member of John Cohen’s staff that hosted a regional in 2006.

“I’m just so happy to have a regional back here,” he said. “I remember standing right in that coaching box in 2006, and I remember looking down that left field line and seeing all the people lined up and thinking, ‘Man, this is an awesome place.’”

True to his words when he was hired to replace Gary Henderson, the Wildcats are relevant locally and nationally.

“You guys heard me say in my (introductory) press conference we were going to win here,” he said. “I had the vision of this happening. To our players’ and our coaching staff’s credit, here were are.”

Along with not having to travel this weekend, the players also are looking forward to staying close to home.

“There’s something always positive about sleeping in your (own) bed,” UK senior stopper Logan Salow said. “Getting back into a routine that you’re more accustomed to. It’s going to be good for us.”

Lexington Regional

Friday, June 2

Game 1: Kentucky vs. Ohio, Noon (ESPNU)

Game 2: Indiana vs. North Carolina State, 7 p.m. (WatchESPN.com)

Saturday, June 3

Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2

Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2

Sunday, June 4

Game 5: Winner Game 4 vs. Loser Game 3

Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5

Monday, June 5

Game 7: If necessary, same teams as in Game 6

Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter