Nick Mingione sees a 'huge benefit' in playing NCAA Tournament at home

Kentucky is as high of a seed as they’ve ever been for the NCAA Baseball Tournament this year. It marks the fourth-ever Lexington Regional, which they’ve now hosted in consecutive seasons for the first time ever, and they’ll have their opportunity to host their first-ever Super Regional in the bluegrass.

Home-field advantage is obviously a huge deal as Nick Mingione explained this week following their selection as the No. 2 overall seed. There’s a history of teams that earn that honor to compete for a national championship, which is why it has always been an emphasis for them and something they’re glad to have accomplished over the past two seasons.

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“You know, when you look at the track record of teams that have made it to Omaha? Obviously, there’s a huge benefit to playing at home,” said Mingione in that press conference. “We always wanted the path to Omaha to be through here. Obviously, we haven’t put ourselves in a position where we can do that up until this year.”

“It’s definitely going to be a bonus to play at home,” Mingione said.

Kentucky only secured a regional berth last season rather than both that and the super regional. They won the Lexington Regional with wins over Ball State, West Virginia, and Indiana. However, their year ended after losing both matchups against LSU, the eventual national champion, in the Baton Rouge Super Regional.

In 2024, though, the Wildcats will have a chance to host both. UK will start off this weekend against a field that includes Western Michigan on Friday along with Indiana State and Illinois. If they advance, they’ll face the winner of the Corvallis Regional, which could be any of Oregon State, UC Irvine, Nicholls State, and Tulane, at Kentucky Proud Park.

With that in front of them, Kentucky Baseball has a possibility to make it to the College World Series. That would just be the latest accomplishment for program history that they’ve achieved of late. That’s why, based on that and the forecast, Mingione is calling on their fanbase to take a day today and take themselves out to their ball games over the weekend.

“I’ve already checked the weather – just so you guys know,” Mingione said with a smirk. “This is the time of year where you do have some rain and things like that. But, right now, Friday looks amazing, especially at noon.”

“Everybody that has an opportunity to take a half-day at work, you get full permission from me,” said Mingione. “I’ll give you a Get Out Of Jail Free card an excuse to miss work. If you come, just blame me.”