Mingione lays it out for Bat Cats, and they have responded

Last weekend, in Columbia, S.C., Nick Mingione believed his team was at a crossroads.

Kentucky had lost the first two games of the series against South Carolina, giving the Wildcats six consecutive losing weekends in SEC play after beginning the league slate with an impressive sweep of a highly regarded Alabama squad.

Something had to change. The team is better than this, the UK boss surmised.

In this case, the tweak was as much a mindset adjustment as it was a physical one.

Mingione has long preached that each day in a baseball season is its own entity. Once that day ends, win or lose, at midnight, it’s off to the next day. Nothing in the rearview mirror, nothing further than the next task at hand.

But the plight of this Kentucky team required something different. A once-promising season may have been slipping away.

“We had that conversation before we played (last) Sunday, and I just talked about the elephant in the room,” Mingione said. “We talked about an azimuth check. My buddy Jason Cummings taught me about those. They didn’t know what that was, what an azimuth was, and I had to explain to them. And, yeah, we actually laid it out there. And we just talked about the elephant. Just basically told them, like, this is what we got to do.”

A course of action was mapped out, with a focus on reaching 13 or 14 SEC wins. Those are the numbers that traditionally give a league team a chance to earn an NCAA bid.

Entering the series finale at South Carolina, UK had eight league wins. It was going to be an uphill climb to 13 or 14 with one game left against a Gamecocks team playing its best baseball of the season and three series remaining against traditional powers Tennessee, Florida, and Arkansas.

But Kentucky rallied to take Game 3 at South Carolina, 9-5, the first win for the “Buzz Cats.” Several players shaved their heads in an effort to lighten the mood before the game. They even got the coaching staff to agree to some similar “hairstyling,” should the team reach certain goals.

The Cats then rode that momentum to a winning series this weekend against the Volunteers, whipping UT 9-2 and 12-2 in the first two games. UK had a chance to sweep on Sunday, but came up just short in a 10-9 loss at Kentucky Proud Park.

They’re suddenly hitting better. They’re pitching better. And they’re defending better.

Mingione admitted that the gambit at South Carolina was a risky one. Some teams may have tightened up and made their predicament even worse; this one appears to have embraced it and played even looser since laying its proverbial cards on the table.

“I told them we do this every day,” he said. “Every day, our guys are taking batting practice on the field, and we chart them and grade them. And there’s a standard, and you’ve got to meet the standard. You get a plus or minus on every swing you take… They know how many pluses they need to meet the standard.

“And this is no different. This is how life works. This is why they have standings. Like, you want to play in the big leagues? Well, every day you show up, and there’s the standings. You’re going to see them on the board and see how many games back and how many you need. And if you can’t handle that, then this board ain’t for you… But if you’re not, go play with freedom and confidence and go for it. And that’s what our guys have done.

So the Cats currently stand at 29-16 overall and 11-13 in SEC play. They have an RPI of 35 with six games remaining against RPI 13 (Florida) and RPI 30 (Arkansas). Win at least two of those, and the metrics look really solid for UK.

But Mingione says why stop there?

“I said, hey, I’ve been part of teams that have peeled off nine wins in a row (in this situation),” he said. “Why don’t you do that? And then we’ll be hosting, like, this whole thing is still right there. I dare you to go win nine games in a row and watch what happens. Watch what happens to our RPI, and watch where we hit. And now we’re bringing it back here (to KPP).

“We have an opportunity to go all the way in and set our own destiny.”