Nick Mingione discusses UK's first scrimmage performance
Bat Cats Central caught up with the head coach on Sunday following the Wildcats' scrimmage against Wright State.
The Kentucky baseball team outscored Wright State 25-8 over 14 innings on Sunday at Prasco Park in its first of two scrimmages against outside competition this fall. The scrimmage was a non-traditional format — for example, Kentucky had an inning turned over before recording three outs, which could’ve prevented more scoring — but the teams tied 6-6 through the first seven inning scrimmage. Kentucky dominated the second seven innings, finishing with a 19-2 victory.
Infielders Patrick Herrera and Ethan Hindle homered over the course of the two games, and other standouts included senior outfielder Will Marcy, sophomore infielder Kyuss Gargett, senior catcher Raphael Pelletier, along with several pitchers who recorded scoreless outings.
For a complete rundown of what happened during the scrimmage, read the report from Mason, Ohio. Following the scrimmage, Bat Cats Central caught up with head coach Nick Mingione to get his thoughts.
On position players who stood out: “I thought some guys did some really good things today. I thought we had some guys who gave us really some good at-bats. That was exciting to see. Guys like Pat Herrera, I thought his home run in the first inning was big. Will Marcy gave us 4-for-4 quality at-bats. Tyler Bell 3-for-3 with his quality at-bats, Landon Franklin 2-for-2 with his quality at-bats, (Aidan) Larkin, freshman, 3-for-3. I thought Kyuss (Gargett) was awesome on every level, 5-for-5 quality at-bats. Good for (Nolan) Belcher to get in there. He had perfect quality at-bats. And Pelletier, 5-for-5 quality at-bats. Offensively, I liked that we did a lot of things good.
“Pitching wise, we had some guys stay out of big innings. We threw 14 innings today and did not give up a big inning. On a day that the wind was blowing out, it would’ve been easy to give up a lot of runs. Give our pitching staff and our defense credit, we did not give up a big inning. That’s absolutely crucial. I thought we defended the field for the most part. There’s a couple plays out there that I feel like we need to make, but we got some big double plays when we needed to.”
On where pitching is compared to where he would expect in the fall: “We’re one week behind where we typically are. School started later, we’re a week behind where we normally are with our arms.
“This place is unbelievable. Phil Arington, Ryan Arington, what they do for all the teams here, their heart and the way they serve. Their field is immaculate. I’m thankful we came here. And it was good for our arms to face another team, throw on a different mound, to come to a place that’s different. We came up (Saturday) night, we stayed the night, we did a service project (Saturday), we packed 2,500 bags of toys for kids because of what Prasco Park does. There are going to be 2,500 kids that get a gift because of Prasco that our guys had the privilege of doing. I’m just proud of our team for coming here and doing what they did… what they do here is unbelievable. Amazing people here, the Aringtons. God has really blessed them, and boy, do they share.”
On what he wants to see improve by the Oct. 27 scrimmage against Morehead State: “We have to run the bases better. We have to do a better job of just focusing on quality pitches. Our pitching staff, just ramming it in there with quality pitches. We’ve got to defend the field better, especially in the outfield. We have to do a better job.
“I thought our catchers did great today. Burkes, Pelletier, Belcher all did great. But we’ve gotta run the bases better. When I say baserunning, I’m also talking base stealing. That all goes into it. We have to hammer out all those little details that we need to be great at. And the last piece is we need to be able to execute bunts.”