With his walk-off home run swing in the bottom of the tenth inning in the Men’s College World Series, Kentucky baseball third baseman Mitchell Daly went from underrated to undeniable.
While the bright lights of Omaha and the Men’s College World Series may have been a first for the Wildcats, they were not for Daly as he had been the “Mecca of college baseball” with Texas before transferring into Lexington.
“It’s been an awesome experience here,” Daly said. “If anybody has struggled like me, I didn’t really know who I was before I came here. If anyone is struggling like that, this is the place for them.”
The transfer was not the only move he’s made, however, as he also moved from shortstop to third base defensively for the Wildcats.
All season long Daly has made the move to the hot corner seem like no big deal as he has only made three errors on the season, which earned him All-SEC Defense Team honors.
“You could hit it 110 miles-per-hour and he is keeping it in the infield,” Nolan McCarthy said. “He is one of the hardest workers I have ever been around.”
If the accolades were not enough, Daly showed what he could do at third on one of the biggest stages in the game as, in the Lexington Super Regional against Oregon State, he made an incredible diving stop on a hot shot up the line and threw out Jabin Trosky in the top of the ninth of the team’s Super-Regional-clinching win.
“We basically got a gold glover over there,” catcher Devin Burkes said. “As soon as he made it, I was like, ‘He got him out,’ I didn’t even need to watch the throw I was already yelling, ‘Let’s go!’”
Throughout the season at the plate, Daly has manned the fifth spot in the lineup and has remained largely under the radar while hitting to a .304 batting average, which is fourth amongst the team’s offensive starters.
If that was not enough to show his value, he is also second amongst starters in on-base percentage at .433, which only trails Ryan Waldschmidt.
Daly has also shown his plate discipline throughout the year as he is third on the team in walks with 32.
While his numbers have been solid, he had not been getting some of the same praise as his other teammates at the plate but regardless, when the lights were brightest, Daly delivered.
In Kentucky’s first game in the Men’s College World Series against NC State, a back-and-forth battle led to nine innings not being enough to decide the ballgame as Daly stepped up to the plate with one out in the bottom of the tenth and Burkes on first.
Despite favorable circumstances, Burkes was caught stealing for the second out of the inning in what could have been a massive momentum swing for the Wolfpack.
Instead, the next pitch of the ballgame turned out to be the final one as Daly connected on a hanging slider and sent it deep to left field, with the ball landing in the Kentucky bullpen for a walk-off home run and win for the Wildcats — their first ever win in the Men’s College World Series.
With that historic swing, Daly’s impact on the team from an offensive standpoint was suddenly no longer a secret.
His impact doesn’t stop there, though, as another aspect of his game is his ability to be a teammate for those around him.
“We all love him to death,” Robert Hogan said. “He is a brother and he is selfless, every time he is in the box, he’s always pounding his chest and we know he’s got us.”
With Daly’s return to Omaha being as a Wildcat and not a Longhorn, it’s likely that he will continue to play a prominent role in Kentucky’s national championship aspirations as the Bat Cats take on Texas A&M in a double elimination game.
