Nick Mingione Reflects on 2023 Season, Looks Toward Future

Kentucky Baseball head coach Nick Mingione met with the media on Thursday afternoon to discuss the Wildcats’ outstanding 2023 season, which saw UK advance to a Super Regional for just the second time in program history. While Mingione boasted about his team, he made it a priority to highlight that while the season was great, it’s time for them to go even further next season.

“Now that we’ve been [to a Super Regional] twice, we’re in a spot where we want to get [to the College World Series],” Mingione said. “We want to bring our fans there. The experience that we had here was phenomenal in the Regional, and you just think that the next step is hopefully for us to host a Super Regional. We were *this* close to the national seed. Playing at home is definitely an advantage.”

Because they failed to grab a national seed, the ‘Cats had to travel to Baton Rouge for their Super Regional matchup, where they were quickly outed by the eventual national champion LSU Tigers.

When asked what he learned from watching this year’s wonky College World Series, Mingione jokingly responded, “I just learned that we got beat by the eventual national champions.” Mingione is friends with LSU head coach Jay Johnson and wants the ‘Cats to get to that level eventually. “It’s obviously a place we want to go, and we’ve been close now. I’m tired of being close and I’m ready to knock that door down.”

With a crop of senior leaders such as Darren Williams and Zack Lee leaving the program, it has been extremely important that Mingione and staff reload in the transfer portal. Minge has slowly begun to dominate the portal, as they brought in a top-10 class last year.

This offseason, Kentucky has already brought in four instant impact transfers in INF Trey Paige (Delaware State), RHP Trey Pooser (College of Charleston), OF Ty Crittenberger (Western Kentucky), and former First Team All-Big 12 selection INF Mitchell Daly (Texas). Mingione detailed his relief this offseason, as reshaping an entire team — such as what they had to do last offseason — hasn’t been an issue this time around.

“The good news is (as it relates to the transfer portal) that we don’t need as many players as we did a year ago. It’s kind of where we want to get our program, to where you just need a handful of guys out of the portal instead of bringing in 12 or 13 guys. Our goal would be to develop our high school guys and eventually not need as many.”

Being a head coach is extremely stressful, as Mingione joked about on Thursday. In addition to the transfer portal, the staff has to deal with the upcoming MLB Draft as well. Five Wildcats, including Lexington Regional Most Outstanding Player Devin Burkes, were listed among Future Stars Series’ Top 600 Prospects List. The MLB Draft will begin on July 9th and run through July 11th.

“July 9th will be one of the most stressful days for any college baseball coach. [The draft] has unfortunately gotten later, as it used to be at the beginning of June. Do we get Devin Burkes back? Is Mason Moore coming back?” Mingione asked. “If they’re not here, then everything changes.”

Losing Burkes and Moore would be a devastating loss for the program, as Kentucky’s postseason stars look to be team pillars on next season’s squad.

The head coach closed things out by discussing the expectations that will be put on them next year after surprising everybody last season. “We’ve always said our goal is to make it to Omaha, and not only make it, but win a national championship. For us, those expectations don’t change.”

We’ll have to sit and wait for the upcoming MLB Draft for now, seeing who’s gone and who’s back. But no matter what happens, Minge and newly hired assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Austin Cousino will act quickly in ensuring another successful campaign for the ‘Cats next season.

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