Two wins from Omaha, get ready for another wild home weekend for Kentucky baseball

john clay

Mon, Jun 3, 2024, 8:34 a.m.·4 min read

If you thought it was wild this past weekend at Kentucky Proud Park, just wait.

We’re about to see see something these parts have never experienced before.

They don’t call it a “super regional” for nothing.

University of Kentucky baseball has never played host to one of those. It will now. You heard that right. Sunday night made it so. That was when, after a 90-minute rain delay, Nick Mingione’s Wildcats took another step in this magical season, completing a three-game sweep of the Lexington Regional by blanking Indiana State 5-0.

It’s the second consecutive season and the third time in seven years the Wildcats have advanced to the super regional. Both previous times their road ended there. This time, the circumstances are different. This time, thanks to its SEC regular season co-championship and No. 2 overall NCAA Tournament seed, the Cats will surely be playing as the host school.

It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal mainly because Kentucky baseball fans — old and new — have shown they know how to make important college baseball games a big deal. They showed it last year when they helped pull the Cats out of the Lexington Regional losers’ bracket and into the winner’s circle. They showed it this year down the stretch of the conference season. And they showed it this weekend, braving rain on Saturday and lightning on Sunday to make KPP a real home-field advantage.

Listen to Indiana State coach Mitch Hannahs after his team was blanked for the first time in 138 games: “I thought we really had a tough time taking their crowd out of it.”

They were into it, alright. Never mind the rain. Or the lightning delay. Instead of opening the KPP gates at 4:30 p.m. for the scheduled 6 p.m. first pitch, the doors didn’t open until 5:15. It was 7:30 before the first batter stepped into the box.

“We have a saying in our program that we do not move,” said Mingione after the win. “And when that weather came in and it started raining, and I looked out there, our fans did the same thing. They didn’t move. They held their ground and they waited.”

The weather did not matter, but home crowds do matter.

“We’ve always said that the path to Omaha, the easiest path is through your home field,” Mingione said.

“Well, first of all, I think, obviously, working hard and earning the right to host is a big deal in college baseball,” said Indiana State’s Hannahs. “Just because you’re playing in front of your crowd. You obviously can control the noise somehow because it’s all for you. But when you can’t get on top of it as the opponent, it’s really frustrating because it’s like a ball that keeps rolling at you and it never stops.”

Kentucky pitcher Cameron O’Brien (10) celebrates as the Wildcats get the final out in their 5-0 win over Indiana State on Sunday night.

A crowd announced at 5,877 waited out a 90-minute rain delay before watching Kentucky clinch the NCAA Lexington Regional by beating Indiana State at Kentucky Proud Park on Sunday night.

Kentucky doesn’t want to stop. It needs two wins in three games to punch a ticket to the College World Series in Omaha for the first time in school history. That won’t be easy, of course. UK will play the winner of the Corvallis Regional, where No. 15 seed Oregon State is the host but the outcome hadn’t been decided as of Monday morning.

Sunday night’s Oregon State-UC Irvine game was suspended after four innings with Oregon State leading 6-4. Oregon State clinches a super-regional berth with a win. A UC Irvine win would force a rematch.

Oregon State has been a college baseball power the past two decades. It has been to the College World Series six times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2013, 2017 and 2018) and won it three times (2006, 2007 and 2018). The Beavers are 44-14 this season. UC Irvine is 45-13.

Still, the Corvallis winner must travel east. If this past weekend was any indication, Kentucky fans will be waiting.

“Tonight was incredible,” said shortstop Grant Smith. “I can’t remember that feeling of having a crowd like that.”

“I’m seeing 5,800 right there as the attendance,” said second baseman Emilien Pitre while peering at the box score. “I can’t imagine what it’s going to feel like next weekend.”

Just wait.