OMAHA, Neb. – Kentucky’s best season in program history ended in the College World Series on Wednesday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field.
The conclusion wasn’t what the Wildcats envisioned when they punched their ticket to the College World Series for the first time in program history 10 days ago. The Wildcats allowed seven runs in the first inning and never recovered, losing to Florida, 15-4, in an elimination game.
“They’re unbelievable in every sense of the word,” Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said. “And they made history. So this hurts. It hurts a lot because this team is fully capable of accomplishing our goal of national champions, but that wasn’t the case this year. That’s not what the Lord had planned.”
Although the Wildcats didn’t achieve their goal of hoisting the national championship trophy, they accomplished numerous firsts as a program.
The Wildcats earned the No. 2 national seed for the NCAA Tournament. They set a new program high for victories in a season (46) and made their first-ever trip to Omaha, Nebraska, to compete for a national title.
“I can look you all in the eye today and tell you, we’ve done the best job we could to develop in every single area of their life, and therefore they’ve made history, and I just want everybody to know what kind of winners they are,” Mingione said.
The Wildcats will lose multiple key contributors from this season’s team, including potential first-round pick Ryan Waldschmidt.
Regardless, the Kentucky program is trending upwards under Mingione’s direction. They have increased their win total each season over the last five years, excluding the shortened 2020 season. They won 40 games and made their second-ever NCAA Tournament Super Regional last year before exceeding those marks this season after being selected in the bottom half of the SEC preseason coaches poll.
“There’s no reason that this program can’t stay at the top and be among this group every single year,” Kentucky pitcher Ryan Hagenow said. “With the staff that we have, all around, not just coaching staff, training staff, our equipment manager – I’m close with everybody – and with the stadium and the fan base we have and Coach Ming leading the way, there’s no reason this team shouldn’t continue to have success. And I think it takes years to build that foundation. But I think we definitely built it.”
Dan Zielinski III has covered the MLB draft for nine years. He has interviewed 518 of the top draft prospects in that period, including four No. 1 overall picks. Multiple publications, including Baseball America, USA Today, MLB.com, The Arizona Republic and The Dallas Morning News, have quoted his work, while he has appeared on radio stations as a “MLB draft expert.” Follow him on Twitter @DanZielinski3.
