For the first time in program history, the Kentucky faithful celebrated as the Cats punched their ticket to Omaha last season for the College World Series.
Despite coming home short of the ultimate goal, the Bat Cats and their devoted fans bought into the team and its culture the whole way there, leading to a historic season nonetheless.
Kentucky, which finished 2024 at No. 3 in the D1Baseball polls, will start its 2025 campaign unranked even after its unprecedented team success over the past few seasons. The lack of a ranking can mostly be attributed to a huge roster flip that has brought back just five notable players from last year’s group.
At Kentucky’s baseball and softball media day on Feb. 4, head coach Nick Mingione was quick to acknowledge his unconventional approach to building his inventory.
“We have 44 guys on our team, we have 29 first year players,” Mingione said twice to ensure the whole room was listening. “What does that mean? That means that I got more grey hair this fall, I got less sleep than I’ve ever gotten.”
When assessing what proved vital to the Wildcats’ success last season, it’s easy to bring up the 481 total runs or the .239 opponent batting average, but what’s sometimes overlooked is the identity and culture that Kentucky had built for itself under the innovative leadership of Mingione.
Through the criticism from opposing head coaches and fans, the Bat Cats have, above all, focused on embracing the weird, and, as the season progressed, the weird confirmed its importance in both the locker room and at Kentucky Proud Park.
According to senior Jackson Nove, the team, in its new glory, has had no problem raising the intensity with each other in hopes of buying in on the team early on.
“In the last, you know, two or three months, we’ve really blossomed in believing in each other. Running around, having fun, talking a lot of crap to each other, bouncing off each other and just, you know, trying to become closer,” Nove said as he smiled in front of the media on Feb. 4.
Nove, a left-handed pitcher, tossed two hitless innings with four strikeouts in a Lexington Super Regional win for the Wildcats over Oregon State in game one, eventually helping lift them to the College World Series.
Alongside Nove on the mission to get the new guys settled in and ready to go for the season was junior James McCoy, who emphasized the importance of “pulling along” the new guys, rather than pushing them to learn the fast-paced practice and unorthodox style of play coming out of the Kentucky dugout.
“They’ve really bought in. It’s been cool to see,” McCoy said. “It’s just one of those things, you know, they need to get plugged in and kind of get their feet wet, and once they do, it’s like hitting the ground running.”
McCoy, who tallied 60 hits and 58 runs in his prior two years in Lexington, is set to take on a much-increased two-way role this season as a right-handed pitcher and outfielder.
On the contrary to the success that needs to take place on the field, Mingione called upon the Big Blue Nation to triumph its impressive impact on the action during home games at Kentucky Proud Park.
“I don’t know how many thousands of people get involved with walk out songs and chants and pink hats, and maybe it’ll be green this year, I don’t know,” Mingione said referring to the pink bucket hats that were seen all throughout the stands in solidarity of former Wildcat Mason Moore’s cozy placeholder for his baseball cap when not on the mound.
“I just want to challenge the Big Blue Nation to do what we’ve done the last two years and just get involved in it, because it makes an impact,” he said.
More antics from both the fans and players include sing-along walk-up songs and dances before at-bats and the dugout cheering extremely loud for every foul-ball, hit-by-pitch, walk, hit and home run.
Crowd size also adds to the empowering influence from fans in Kentucky Proud Park. For the Wildcats’ series against SEC and border rival Tennessee, fans broke the school-record for attendance in a three-game series with a total count of 21,023 people.
Game two of that series once held the title for single-game record in attendance with 7,304, but it was later broken in the Lexington Super Regional win over Oregon State, where 7,558 devoted baseball lovers packed into Kentucky Proud Park.
With the unwavering support of the Big Blue Nation and another odds-defying season in mind, the Bat Cats’ 17 transfers, 12 freshman and two returning starters will take the field for UK’s first home series of the year against the Hofstra Pride. First pitch for game one against Hofstra is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET and will air live on the SEC Network+.
