Baseball Cats Respond to Adversity with Sweep of Sooners
The Kentucky baseball team had a rough week last week. UK lost to Western Kentucky in Bowling Green on Tuesday before being swept by Mississippi State in Starkville last weekend.
On Monday, UK head coach Nick Mingione challenged his team to lock in this week and get focused on this weekend’s Southeastern Conference opponent, No. 14 Oklahoma.
“We met earlier in the week and I told the guys that this could go one way or the other,” Mingione said. “We just had our first rough weekend, even though we weren’t far off. I challenged them and we talked about, early in the week, how everyone is playing for something right now and they need to go on the attack and it’s in their hands.”
The Cats were up to the challenge. UK won 4-3 on Friday and 8-5 on Saturday. On Sunday, UK completed the SEC series sweep, it’s first since sweeping Auburn April 11-13 last season, by topping the Sooners 7-2.
Mingione liked how his team responded in sweeping the Sooners this weekend at Kentucky Proud Park.
“To our team’s credit, we played with this unbelievable freedom and we really clicked on all cylinders,” Mingione said. “I told them, this is what University of Kentucky baseball looks like. It started with our pitchers on the mound, we played tremendous defense.”
Freshman shortstop Tyler Bell echoed his head coach’s statement.
“Coach Minge said it best,” Bell said. “Our meeting on Monday, he said ‘you guys have got something to play for now’. We really took that in and played our game. Whatever we needed to do, we got it done this weekend.”
Mingione knew that the challenge this weekend would be a tough test from a talented Oklahoma team.
“I have so much respect for Oklahoma, they’re an amazing team,” Mingione said. “To be able to do that says a lot about our guys and their fight and the execution level.”
All weekend long, it seemed that the Sooners were on the verge of gaining momentum, only to see the Cats respond time and again.
“Our guys’ ability to answer back and punch back was awesome,” Mingione said. “I thought that happened today. Our ability to answer back, our pitchers did a great job today. Give the guys credit, they’re fighting and they’re executing, and it was a special day.”
Mingione hopes that his team is finding its stride with the postseason just around the corner.
“This has been our most complete weekend so far. All the way around, it’s been our most complete weekend,” Mingione said. “We ask our guys to learn, grow and improve every day. This is what we wanted, we wanted to play great all year long and especially late, so I’m proud of the guys for that.”
Bell knows that the Cats need to carry this solid play into this week.
“It feels great. Obviously, didn’t play well last week. We’re playing for something now and trying to get in (the NCAA Tournament),” Bell said. “We had a really good week and we’ve got to bring that into next week now.”
Kentucky’s response to last week was huge against Oklahoma this weekend. Now, the Cats have momentum with the postseason quickly approaching.
