Notebook: Mitch Daly the winner, Cats land two left-handed pitchers from the transfer portal
Notebook: Mitch Daly the winner, Cats land two left-handed pitchers from the transfer portal
Mitch Daly, a transfer from the University of Texas, will finish his college baseball career with three College World Series appearances.
It was fitting that Kentucky third baseman Mitch Daly made one of the great plays of the Wildcats’ season on Sunday night. With Kentucky needing just two more outs to clinch its first College World Series appearance, Daly dove to his right and made a diving stop off a shot down the line by Oregon State’s Jabin Trosky. He rose to his feet and threw a bullet across the infield to beat Trosky for the out.
Had that great play not occurred, perhaps the Beavers would have found a way to get the tying — or possibly winning run — across the plate in the ninth inning. It didn’t happen, and because of that, Daly finds himself in Omaha for the third time in his four-year college career. Daly went to Omaha while he was an infielder at the University of Texas in 2021 and 2022.
“Mitch came from a Power Five school in Texas,” Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said. “Might be the biggest winner in all of college baseball… all four years that guy has played and helped lead a team to a super regional.”
Similar to Jackson Gray on the 2023 team, Daly was a successful college player early in his career but struggled offensively toward the end of his Texas career. As a freshman in 2021, Daly slashed 316/.413/.416 overall and .356/.430/.494 in the Big 12 with nine doubles and a home run and reached base safely in 54 of 59 games. He was named All-Big 12 First Team. But he never quite got back to that level at Texas, slashing .234/.337/.385 over his final two years with the Longhorns. He entered the transfer portal last summer and chose the Wildcats. He regained his freshman form at Kentucky this year, slashing .302/.434/.497 with 15 doubles, one triple, six homers and 44 runs batted in.
He’s shown his baseball talent at Kentucky, but his experience without question helped a Kentucky team that was close to breaking through to Omaha a year ago.
“I told Coach (Mingione) the day I got here, when I looked around the locker room and saw the pieces that we had, I was confident that this was an Omaha-caliber team,” Daly said. “The whole team is just a bunch of winners, just a bunch of competitors, guys who do whatever it takes to win. That's really been our identity all year is just doing whatever it takes to win and being on the attack. I wasn't surprised when we won the super and now that we're here, and I know that these guys aren't satisfied.”
Daly is the only position player with experience in the College World Series. Relief pitcher Robert Hogan was a freshman on Texas A&M’s 2022 College World Series team, but he did not pitch in the postseason. Daly said he wanted to let the young players on Kentucky’s roster know how difficult it is to reach college baseball’s ultimate destination.
“One of the things I kind of just told a lot of the younger guys is to appreciate this because for a lot of them it's their first college season, and my first time here I was a freshman as well,” Daly said during Thursday’s press conference in Omaha. “I really didn't appreciate how hard it is to get here. It took not going for me to really be, like, wow, this is special. That's just what I've tried to tell them is just appreciate the moment, take everything in, and don't take it for granted.”
Ethan Walker and Cole Hentschel commit to Kentucky
The Wildcats are still competing for a national championship this season, but the building of the 2025 team is ongoing. Kentucky’s portal class grew to nine commitments in recent days as left-handed pitchers Ethan Walker (Longwood) and Cole Hentschel (Richmond) made their commitments to the coaching staff.
Walker, who hails from the same college as former Kentucky first baseman Hunter Gilliam, appeared in 15 games with nine starts as a sophomore in 2024. He held opponents to a .191 batting average and struck out 59 batters in 42 innings. Walks were an issue, however, as he gave up 31 free passes and also hit six batters. Still, he finished the season with a 4.50 ERA and gives Kentucky another arm to compete for the rotation in the fall, though it’s probably safest to project him as a bullpen arm at this point.
Hentschel took a visit to Kentucky last week and made a commitment to the Wildcats on Thursday night. A graduate transfer from the University of Richmond, Hentschel is a pure reliever who struck out 46 batters in 30.1 innings of work this past season. His fastball was up to 95 miles per hour in the spring. Hentschel likely slots in the backend of the bullpen on Kentucky’s 2025 roster.
Incoming transfer portal commitments (9)
RHP Scott Rouse (Radford)
OF Trent Youngblood (Transylvania)
RHP Chase Alderman (EKU)
RHP Nic McCay (South Dakota State)
RHP Ryan Verdugo (Cal State Bakersfield)
1B/OF Cole Hage (Columbia)
OF Jackson Strong (Canisius)
LHP Ethan Walker (Longwood)
Evan Byers wins Elite 90 Award
Congratulations to Kentucky reliever Evan Byers on winning the Elite 90 award. Here’s more about the award from UK media relations:
“Byers, an Animal Sciences major, currently carries a perfect 4.0 GPA. Byers, a redshirt junior, was presented with the award during the opening ceremonies at the Men’s College World Series on Thursday night in Omaha, Nebraska. The Elite 90, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s championships.”