Nick Mingione breaks down Morehead State exhibition, provides fall practice thoughts
Kentucky's ninth-year head coach discussed Kentucky's scrimmage against the Eagles and where his team stands following the conclusion of fall practice.
Kentucky wrapped up fall practice on Sunday with a combined 29-4 scrimmage victory over Morehead State at Kentucky Proud Park. It was the second exhibition of the fall against outside competition. In early October, Kentucky traveled to Mason, Ohio, and defeated Wright State of the Horizon League 25-8 over 14 innings.
Bat Cats Central was on hand for both scrimmages. Observations for the games can be found below.
Here’s what Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said following the Morehead State scrimmage on Sunday:
On playing a game again at Kentucky Proud Park: “It was great. The last time we played outside competition (at Kentucky Proud Park) was our first time going to Omaha. We actually had a great crowd today. I loved to see it. Super proud of the team. The growth they’ve made over the last 45 days is pretty impressive. I thanked them for all the strides they’ve made.”
On the strides from the first to second scrimmage: “The first thing I challenged them with last time we played (against Wright State) was to be a team. Can they prove that we can be a team? We talk about family in our program. Obviously, we have a lot of new guys. We saw a team that enjoyed being around each other and had fun. Today, I challenged them, like ‘hey, we’ve proven we can be a good team, now can you execute our system? Can you do the things that it takes to win?’ Like pitchers work extremely fast, defense make routine plays, stay on the attack. Do we have guys that can give us grinding, quality at-bats in the box? Hold our ground, takes the walks, extra-base hits, bunts, stolen bases, smart, intelligent, aggressive base running. They did that, and I was super proud of them for that.”
On how much he likes this group: “I like our team, and what I like about our team is the strides they’ve made. As coaches, when you challenge them and ask them to do things and they go out and actually do it, it gives you confidence as a coach because your team has to acquire and attain certain skills. They also have to know that they belong. We had some guys make some really big jumps. Whether or not it’ll be good enough in the spring, I have no idea, but I know that they’ve prepared right, they’ve gone about their business right and they have a clear understanding of what it’s supposed to look like. We had guys go out and execute that. I’m proud of them for that.”
On sophomore pitcher Ben Cleaver’s performance: “The one thing I liked about Ben is he got swings and misses in the strike zone. It’s one thing to get swings and misses out of the strike zone, but he was getting swings and misses in the strike zone off his fastball, his breaking ball and then he got the swing and miss on his changeup. He was in total control. I appreciated the fact that he had the leadoff walk, and the next thing you know he picks the guys off, strikes a guy out and now we got a 1-2-3 first and we’re off and rolling. But his composure, his competitiveness and his swings and misses stood out.”
On Will Marcy and Kyuss Gargett’s performances in the exhibitions this fall: “One thing about Will is he has a track record of hitting everywhere he’s been, whether it be NC State or Memphis. You saw that again on display for us. His ability to use the whole field, his ability to get extra base hits. He can play a high, high level defense. And then for Kyuss, I give him a lot of credit. One adjustment we made is he started going righty only a couple of weeks ago. He has really thrived doing that. You saw him hit the ball the other way for an extra base hit, pull the ball for an extra base hit. He’s made great strides, especially offensively. Defensively, he’s done well at second and short. His speed is definitely a tool. As soon as he gets on base, at any point in time, he’s ready to go. He’s made great strides in so many areas.”
On how the staff determined Gargett should hit right-handed and no longer switch hit: “Coach (Chase) Slone brought it up. He just said ‘hey, what do you think about Kyuss just doing righty?’ I said to run it by (Kyuss). Coach Slone had a guy who was a switch-hitter who ended up going just right only and turned himself into a top-3 round draft pick. He just felt like Kyuss, for him, just trying to figure out the two swings was being super hard. He made the adjustment, and so far, whether we stay with it or not, it is one of those things we’ll look at here in the winter and the post-fall and see how it goes. But I’m proud of Kyuss and his heart, his ability to try something different.”
On replacing much of last year’s team and how much clearer the picture is going into the winter: “Some guys have really separated themselves in a good way. The thing I always tell our team is we’ll go through and do fall evaluations and have end of the fall meetings with me. We’ll sit down and we’ll chat and we’ll talk. One of the things we’ll go over is, if the season started today, and we’ll tell them ‘here’s where we see you.’
“And I usually follow that up right after with ‘hey, here’s the good news, or maybe the bad news for you, the season doesn’t start today and we’ve still got over two months.’ We have to use this time to either build on or make adjustments for those guys. We’ll have to be very intentional because we have so many new players. We have to be very intentional and precise about how we train and prepare them moving forward from here on out.”