‘Bombs and bunts’ philosophy on full display in Kentucky baseball’s fast start to 2024

In many ways, Kentucky baseball’s eighth inning in a 9-5 win over Morehead State on Tuesday was the perfect Nick Mingione inning.

The Wildcats found themselves down 5-2 with one out thanks to a series of earlier missed opportunities in the field and at the plate, but strung together a seven-run inning thanks in large part to a willingness to stay patient.

Single, single, walk, walk, hit-by-pitch, squeeze bunt, tie game.

“Bombs and bunts, those are like my two favorite ways (to score),” Mingione said at UK’s preseason media day this month.

With the game tied at five, third baseman Mitch Daly gave Kentucky the lead with a single. Then the bomb came with a deep double to right-center field from first baseman Ryan Nicholson to clear the bases.

A perfect inning from closer Johnny Hummel followed to extend Kentucky’s season-opening winning streak to four games.

“I was really proud because it would have been really easy to go, ‘Oh, this is not our night,’” Mingione said after UK’s home opener in front of an announced crowd of 2,844 at Kentucky Proud Park. “They didn’t do that. They called their own players meeting right there in the sixth inning. … Their desire to win really showed tonight.

“I loved the fact that we’ve played four games this year and we’ve had to win three different ways.”

When the eighth inning finally ended, 12 batters had come to the plate. Kentucky had totaled four hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch. Mingione’s fondness for bunting may feel out of place as more MLB teams cite advanced metrics in deciding to give away outs as rarely as possible, but his theory that forcing less-adept college players to field the ball can often result in the right kind of chaos was proven again when Morehead missed the opportunity for a force out at home plate on shortstop Grant Smith’s squeeze bunt by instead unsuccessfully trying to tag the runner sprinting from third base.

“We have a lot of guys that can run really well, as well as bunt,” Nicholson said. “We have some guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark. Kind of whatever the game calls for we can do. We’re not really a one-dimensional ball club, especially offensively.”

The win over Morehead followed a three-game sweep of USC Upstate in the first series of the season. The closest of the three games in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was a 3-0 shutout in game two.

Despite the fast start, it is clear that Mingione is still feeling out his roster.

Southern Cal transfer Nick Lopez started two of three games at third base in the opening series with Texas transfer Mitchell Daly starting the third. Lopez has the better track record at the plate, while Daly is considered the better defender.

Lopez, who started at third against Morehead, has proven his worth at the plate with five hits in his first 11 at-bats, but a disastrous fourth inning in the field Tuesday led Mingione to make an early substitution. The first two Morehead batters in the fourth inning reached on throwing errors by Lopez. The second error allowed the Eagles’ first run to score. The third batter in the inning reached on a bunt single that Lopez fielded but did not attempt to throw to first base.

Daly steadied the defense at third but also reached base twice, including the go-ahead RBI single in the eighth-inning comeback.

Freshman Griffin Cameron, a former Lexington Catholic star, started the first two games of the season in center field. Western Kentucky transfer Ty Crittenberger started the finale at USC Upstate and against Morehead at the position.

Sophomore right fielder James McCoy made his third start in four games Tuesday but was removed for freshman Eli Small in the eighth inning. Small contributed a pinch hit single, two days after blasting a pinch hit home run in his first college at-bat on Sunday.

“This may be positionally as deep a team as I’ve had since I’ve been here,” Mingione said. “We’ve got to continue to give guys opportunities.

“... A guy like James McCoy came out of the game and he was all-in the at-bat with Eli Small. Nick Lopez came out of the game and was an unbelievable teammate to Mitch Daly. These guys are telling me this.”

The schedule should help Mingione learn more about his team as it attempts to reach the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1950.

Kentucky will face just one team that finished the 2023 season ranked higher than 85th in the RPI (Texas State) before it opens Southeastern Conference play against Georgia on March 15. Included in that stretch is just one series against a 2023 NCAA Tournament team (March 1-3 against Lipscomb).

The Wildcats will face their first Power Five opponent this weekend when they play in the Karbach Round Rock Classic in Round Rock, Texas, against Washington State, Texas State and Kansas.

Even Mingione is not ready to guess at how long it might take him to figure out his best lineup. The only certainty is the version of Kentucky that took the field in the first four games will look different from the one that pushes for a postseason berth as the regular season winds down.

“I’ve been a part of teams that have depth,” Mingione said. “This has a lot of offensive depth. I think for us to be at our best you’ve seen this multiple times — on Sunday and now today — when we’re getting a lot of guys involved it creates a lot of pressure for our opponents.

“How much time? I don’t know. I think this one might take a little longer than normal because there are so many options.”