Nick Mingione is high on "Big Biscuit" Dylan Koontz

Over the past two seasons, Kentucky has had incredible luck selecting first baseman out of the Transfer Portal.

In 2023, the Wildcats hauled in R-Sr. Hunter Gilliam from Longwood, who went on to hit for a .324 average and 12 home runs en route to an NCAA Super Regional appearance. This luck continued last season, as Mingione and his staff plucked Gr. Ryan Nicholson from Cincinnati for his final season of College Baseball. Nicholson would go on to hit for a .306 AVG and 23 home runs, tying to the program record for long balls hit in a season.

This offseason, it looks like the Cats may just be hitting on that position again. Before he’s even played a game at Kentucky, “Big Biscuit” Dylan Koontz has already become a fan-favorite and someone that Kentucky Baseball head coach Nick Mingione is very high on.

“A guy by the name of Dylan Koontz coming out of the fall had won [the first base] job,” Mingione told host Darren Headrick on his radio show Monday. “He’s a left-handed bat and a transfer from Campbell. He’s a great personality and he can really swing it. You’ll enjoy watching him.”

The Huntersville, NC native spent his first three seasons of College Baseball at Campbell, becoming the second Camel to transfer to Kentucky over the past two seasons. Right-handed pitcher Cameron O’Brien, who pitched at Campbell from 2021-2023, set the Kentucky program record for appearances out of the bullpen (36) last season.

In 56 career games (he did not play in 2023), Koontz boasts a career .267 batting average with nine doubles, six home runs, and 35 RBI. He dominated last summer with the Forest City Owls (Coastal Plains League), hitting for a .440 average with eight home runs, 31 RBI, and a 1.370 SLG%. This past season, Koontz hit for a .295 batting average with seven doubles, six home runs, and 31 RBI. He made 32 starts at first base, second base and DH.

“I’ve known that Kentucky has a very fun and loose environment,” Koontz told KSR this summer. “It’s a very strong blue collar type players that makes Kentucky’s program the way they are today. They don’t move their feet when a ball is thrown at them and they are not afraid to bunt any of their players if it helps the team and the players do what’s best for the team and not themselves.”

Along with being a very talented player, Mingione went deeper into detail about the character of Koontz and if anybody has ever fit the culture of this fun and loose Kentucky Baseball program, it’s this guy.

“On his protective arm gear, it said ‘Big Biscuit.’ I was like, ‘Big Biscuit? What is that?,” Mingione said with a laugh. “And he was like ‘coach, that’s what the guys call me. It started out as Biscuit. Every Sunday I cook biscuits’ and he was like ‘you want some’?” As Mingione and Headrick laughed, I think I heard all of Big Blue Nation submitting their orders for some piping hot biscuits.

“I’d want [Big Blue Nation] to know is I’m gonna give my all for the team,” Koontz told KSR. “I will do whatever to help the team but I also love to have fun on the field. I am very excited to be a Kentucky Wildcat and to work hard to keep what the teams in the past have created.”

Kentucky opens its 2025 regular season on the road at Lipscomb on February 14.