Nick Mingione addresses controversial weather delays in LSU-Kentucky Super Regional

The first game of the Baton Rouge Super Regional between LSU and Kentucky was delayed seven hours Saturday due to expected bad weather in the area. However, the bad weather never came.

When the Tigers and Wildcats finally stepped on the field, LSU had a field day. The Tigers pounded the Wildcats to a pulp with a 14-0 thrashing to go up 1-0 in the Super Regional.

Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione told the media after the game he had no issues with how the situation was handled.

“No, I sat right there yesterday and answered that same question and just basically said, hey look, the weather is going to be what it is, and we’re going to trust whoever makes the calls, and we’re going to live with it,” Mingione said. “We’re not going to point any fingers or make any excuses, so that would be my same answer to that.”

The game was originally set for a 2 p.m. CT first pitch before getting pushed back to 8:06 p.m. CT and then later 9:06 p.m. CT.

Mingione said the NCAA people in charge of checking the weather did a good job of keeping himself and LSU head coach Jay Johnson informed.

“They did a great job keeping us in the loop with communication,” Mingione said. “Myself, Jay, we were there. Everything that was talked about was communicated to the coaches, and they basically told us when we were playing and when we weren’t and when the weather was coming and when the weather wasn’t. They did all the communication.”

Once the weather delay finally ended, LSU scored at least one run in five different innings against Kentucky with a six-run fifth blowing the game wide open. The team hit six home runs, led by Tommy White‘s two bombs and Tre’ Morgan‘s two homers. Paul Skenes threw 7.2 innings of beautiful baseball to keep the Wildcats at bay the entire game. He allowed only four hits while striking out nine.

Kentucky first baseman Hunter Gillman said the weather delay was no excuse for the team’s performance Saturday.

“Today the whole weather forecast stuff was crazy, but our mindset is whatever happens, good,” Hunter Gilliam said. “If we’d have pushed it back until 2:00 in the morning, we’re ready to go. The result wasn’t what we wanted, but the whole waiting around, that didn’t have too much to do with it. We just didn’t play our best game tonight.”