Nick Mingione confident Kentucky will host regional, but "we're fighting for the national seed"

You don’t need Kentucky baseball head coach Nick Mingione to tell you just how important tonight’s game against No. 9 seed Alabama is for the No. 8 seed Bat Cats to open the SEC Tournament. But he’s going to tell you anyway. It’s simply that big for the program’s chances not only to host a regional in Lexington, but earn a top-eight national seed for a chance to host a super regional.

16 teams are given ‘national seeds,’ but the top eight automatically host a super regional if they advance past the regional. And entering the SEC Tournament, Kentucky sits at No. 9 overall in D1Baseball’s latest projections and No. 11 overall by Baseball America. That’s good for a Lexington regional, but just outside an automatic bid for supers.

It puts Mingione and the Bat Cats in an interesting spot going into tonight’s matchup against the Crimson Tide. On one hand, there’s a sense of peace for the veteran head coach, knowing his team has likely done enough to host a regional no matter how things unfold in Hoover. They’ve taken care of business up to this point to earn that.

“We’re excited about it. Obviously, Alabama is a really good team. We played them earlier in the year. Both teams are totally different, it was the second weekend of the season,” Mingione said in an appearance on Kentucky Sports Radio on Tuesday. “The thing I guess I have peace about is we’ve put ourselves in a position where I feel like regardless of what happens tonight, we’re going to host a regional in Lexington. I really do.”

On the other hand, it’s not just about hosting a regional. There’s plenty more at stake and up for grabs with a run in Hoover. The ultimate prize? Well, an SEC Tournament championship would obviously be a game-changer, but a decent run very well could solidify that sought-after top-eight national seed. That’d put the Bat Cats in an excellent position entering the Big Dance.

“We’re fighting for the national seed. In college athletics, there’s always another level to this, even in pro sports,” Mingione told KSR. “You make the postseason, great. Now you want to host a regional, OK. You feel good about that. Now let’s be the national seed and get as high as we can. There’s always another level. And we need to win this game if we want to have a chance to be a national seed and move on.”

Kentucky (36-17, 16-14 SEC) hasn’t hosted a regional since 2017, the last time the program made it to the NCAA Tournament. The Bat Cats have gotten close, but the grind of the SEC schedule has kept them on the outside looking in, especially in recent memory.

“Baseball in our league is a meat grinder,” Mingione said. “… Two out of the last three years we have been just one or two wins away from making the postseason. The margin of victory in this league is just unbelievable.”

And then after hitting the transfer portal hard and finding the right collection of pieces, the rewards have finally come this season — with plenty more to be had in the coming weeks. It won’t be easy — again, emphasis on the meat grinder — but it’s something to work with.

“I’m just thankful to be in the position we’re in and have the season we’ve had,” he added. “We have the No. 2 RPI in the country, we’re fighting to be a national seed, a top-eight seed. And we have the No. 1 strength of schedule in the country. It’s crazy to think we’re sitting here as a No. 8 seed (in the SEC Tournament) because of tiebreakers and unbalanced schedules, everything else, and we’re No. 2 in the RPI. It’s just like man, that’s crazy.”

Mingione credits his team’s unselfishness for the season turnaround and momentum heading into the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. It’s the all-in, team-first mentality that has allowed the Bat Cats to get to this point.

“Our guys, they’re so unselfish,” he said. “They bunt, they do things offensively that other teams aren’t willing to do. We go first to third, play really hard. We’ve got pitchers on our staff that could be starters, but we’ve asked them to come out of the bullpen not once, but twice in a weekend. They get their innings that way. They’ve just been really unselfish.”

They’ll look to use that mentality in Hoover starting this afternoon, with first pitch vs. Alabama scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET.