Kentucky baseball is in position to host regional for first time since 2017

In his first season as Kentucky’s head coach, Nick Mingione led the Wildcats to a 39-20 record which led to a No. 10 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. That allowed Kentucky to host a regional.

Unfortunately, the Wildcats haven’t been in the postseason since winning that regional.

The 2023 Kentucky baseball team is about to change that. After a win over Dayton on Tuesday at Kentucky Proud Park, the Bats Cats are 26-3 and are on their way to hosting a regional tournament. Mingione’s club is legit and has a chance to host another regional in June.

Let’s dive into what Kentucky’s tournament resume looks like as the Bat Cats keep stacking wins.

Kentucky still holds top RPI spot

Unlike college basketball, the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) is the top metric used to determine seeding in college baseball. At the halfway point of the season, Kentucky owns the No. 1 spot.

• Record: 26-3
• Strength of schedule: 5
• Non-conference record: 18-2
• Quad 1: 14-2
• Quad 2: 3-1
• Quad 3/4: 9-0

Kentucky has handled its business against bad teams and owns a 8-2 road record giving the Bat Cats a ton of quality wins. UK took 2 of 3 against Elon to open the season and that has real value as the Phoenix are No. 18 in RPI entering the weekend.

However, some big challenges remain.

The Bat Cats face sub-50 Georgia on the road this weekend but still have series remaining against South Carolina (No. 3), LSU (No. 5), Vanderbilt (No. 7), Florida (No. 12), and Tennessee (No. 19). Kentucky was up to the challenge early in the campaign recording top-25 series wins over both Alabama and Missouri.

With only one sub-100 foe (Tennessee Tech) left on the schedule, Kentucky feels close to a lock to make this tournament as long as things don’t go totally sideways down the stretch. Win a few more series and the Bat Cats could be close to earning a national seed where they could host a regional and super regional.

Kentucky would host regional if tournament started today

There is a long way to go as college baseball teams have not yet reached the midway point of league play. However, there is enough data at this point to start making projections. There would be tournament baseball played for the first time ever at Kentucky Proud Park if the tournament started today.

Bracket projections are starting to roll out as Kentucky is in a good place entering the first weekend in April.

College Baseball Bracketology Projections

I hope we get answers in the next 8 weeks because this was torture.

(Edited) pic.twitter.com/Prr11v2gcY

— Ben Upton (@Ben_Upton5) April 5, 2023

The Bat Cats currently lack blue-chip wins and that would keep them out of the national seeds (1-8). However, there is enough there to clearly host. Kentucky owns series wins over two projected at-large teams (Alabama and Elon) plus a run-rule victory over Indiana.

However, the schedule gets much tougher quickly.

The goal this week is to record a series victory over Georgia on the road before playing four games next week against two solid at-large teams (Louisville and LSU) away from Kentucky Proud Park. Kentucky has a great chance to really beef up its resume next week as some huge games are around the corner.