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KSR Today: Kentucky hosts Oregon State in Super Regional

Zack Geogheganby:Zack Geoghegan•06/08/24•

ZGeogheganKSR

Photo of Nick Mingione by Aaron Perkins | Kentucky Sports Radio
Photo of Nick Mingione by Aaron Perkins | Kentucky Sports Radio

Good morning, folks! Today is the day — for the first time in program history, Kentucky baseball (the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament) will host a Super Regional.

The opponent for this three-game weekend series? The 15-seed Oregon State Beavers. Game 1 takes place later tonight at Kentucky Proud Park with Game 2 set for late Sunday night. If necessary, a decisive Game 3 will be held on Monday. A series win for Kentucky would push the Bat Cats to the program’s first-ever College World Series appearance next weekend in Omaha, NE.

Kentucky (43-14; 22-8 SEC) will have to defy some history to make it there though. UK is 0-4 all-time in the Super Regional round, two of those losses coming in the Nick Mingione era (2017, 2023). That being said, this is Mingione’s most talented group yet. The Bat Cats swept through the regional round last weekend after taking down Western Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana State in succession.

Oregon State (45-14; 19-10 PAC-12) will present plenty of challenges for Kentucky. The Beavers also swept through its regional, beating Tulane and then UC Irvine twice to reach the Super Regional. OSU is led by PAC-12 Player of the Year and a Golden Spikes Award Finalist, Travis Bazzana, who is fifth in the nation in batting average and sixth in homers.

This will be the first-ever meeting on the diamond between these two very different schools. Who will come out on top? Join along as KSR covers it all from start to finish. If you aren’t following Daniel Hager (@DanielHagerKSR) on social media, you’re doing it wrong.

Below is this weekend’s schedule, along with some of the preview content we’ve written at KSR over the last few days.

Saturday, June 8
[2] No. 2 Kentucky vs. [15] No. 7 Oregon State
6 p.m. ET; Lexington, Ky. (Kentucky Proud Park)
Radio: UK Sports Network | Television: ESPNU

Sunday, June 9
[2] No. 2 Kentucky vs. [15] No. 7 Oregon State
9 p.m. ET; Lexington, Ky. (Kentucky Proud Park)
Radio: UK Sports Network | Television: ESPNU

Monday, June 10 (if necessary)
[2] No. 2 Kentucky vs. [15] No. 7 Oregon State
TBD; Lexington, Ky. (Kentucky Proud Park)
Radio: UK Sports Network | Television: TBD

Nick Mingione, players preview Super Regional

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BIG weekend for official visitors

The first of three significant official visitor weekends for Kentucky football kicked off on Friday with half a dozen highly-important 2025 recruits spending the next couple of days in Lexington. Two of them are already committed to the Wildcats, so they’ll be putting on their recruiting hats this weekend.

Along with the six official visitors, we also had a surprise unofficial visitor stop by campus on Friday. Three-star cornerback Shamar “Dudie” Arnoux, a former Tennessee commit, was in town yesterday. Clocking in at 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, the Carrollton (GA) High product is ranked No. 471 overall by the On3 Industry Ranking and is considered a Top 50 cornerback in the nation.

Below are this weekend’s six official visitors. For a look at Kentucky’s current 2025 recruiting class, click here. If you want even more football recruiting scoop, we’ve got plenty over on KSBoard.

Javeon Cambell (DL) 6-5, 260 | Western Hills (Frankfort, KY)
4-star: No. 234 overall, No. 17 DL

Stone Saunders (QB) 6-1, 205 | Bishop McDevitt (Harrisburg, PA) KENTUCKY COMMIT
3-star: No. 455 overall, No. 32 QB

Darrin Strey (OT) 6-6, 295 | Paw Paw (Paw Paw, MI)
3-star: No. 483 overall, No. 32 OT

Isaac Sowells (IOL) 6-2, 290 | Louisville Male (Louisville, KY)
3-star: No. 523 overall, No. 44 IOL

Taren Hedrick (OT) 6-5, 305 | Community School of Naples (Columbia, MO)
3-star: No. 621 overall, No. 38 OT

Tucker Kattus (IOL) 6-5, 300 | St. Xavier (Cincinnati, OH) KENTUCKY COMMIT
3-star: No. 980 overall, No. 83 IOL

Want more Kentucky football recruiting intel? Join KSR Plus for the most comprehensive coverage of the Cats on the internet. With a KSR membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR’s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.

Jasper Johnson playing in FIBA U18 AmeriCup semifinals

Kentucky men’s basketball head coach Mark Pope is spending some time over in Buenos Aires, Argentina to check out a handful of his top high school targets. Suiting up for Team USA in the 2024 FIBA U18 AmeriCup are the likes of Lexington native Jasper Johnson (5-star SG), Trey McKenney (5-star SG), Nate Ament (4-star SF), and Shelton Henderson (4-star SF).

On Friday, Team USA (4-0) used a second-half boost to power past Puerto Rico, 98-66, advancing to Saturday’s semifinals along the way. Johnson was solid, finishing with seven points, one assist, and one impressive block. McKenney was the star though, recording 17 points, nine rebounds, and two steals.

Up next, the Americans will take on Canada later today at 4:40 p.m. EST with a spot in Sunday’s gold medal game on the line.

Travis Perry’s final high school game

Incoming Kentucky freshman Travis Perry, who has already moved into his new home at the Wildcat Coal Lodge on campus, will close out his high school career later today before fully diving into the lifestyle of a college student-athlete.

On Friday night at Lexington Catholic High School, Perry and Holy Cross commit Max Green (Oldham County) led the Kentucky All-Stars past the Indiana All-Stars by a final score of 103-82. The 21-point win was the largest margin of victory for Kentucky since 1997.

Perry finished with 12 points, but it was Green and his 25 second-half points (36 total) that fueled the Kentucky All-Stars to victory down the stretch (five-star Kansas commit Flory Bidunga fouling out with 10 minutes left for the Indiana All-Stars sparked the Bluegrass comeback).

That was just the first game of his annual series. Game 2 shifts to Indianapolis at Gainbridge Fieldhouse (home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers) for what will be the final high school game of Perry’s career. Friday night’s win was just the fourth since 1998 for the Kentucky All-Stars — can they pull off the sweep tonight?

Follow @KSRonX, KSR’s official Twitter/X account, for all the latest Kentucky Wildcats news, videos, and content.

Will Riley wraps up Alabama OV

Could we be inching closer to a commitment decision from five-star wing Will Riley? On Friday night, he posted pictures from his third and final official visit this week, which went to Alabama. Riley, ranked No. 10 overall by On3 in the class of 2025, visited Illinois to begin the week before stopping at Kentucky in the middle of the week.

Riley announced earlier in the spring that he was down to the likes of Kentucky, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, and the NBL, but Illinois has clearly snuck into the mix. He officially visited Arizona in March, meaning the only school he hasn’t checked out yet is Arkansas (now coached by John Calipari). That could still happen at some point, but the sense is that Riley could be ready to make a decision sooner rather than later.

If he does, there’s a very good chance he will reclassify to 2024 and be ready to play college basketball right away in 2024-25. Mark Pope does have one more open roster spot. Adding a potential one-and-done NBA prospect to that group wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

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2025-01-26