Kentucky baseball players and coach Mingione talk win over Western Michigan

out four Ethan gr catch coverage Robert what was what was working out there for you today you came in there in tough situation and Pitch through shut out Innings um I guess the thing is just throwing strikes that was the biggest thing just being able to throw every pitch for a strike that keeps the hitters off balance um and I have a unbelievable defense behind me so it's easy to pitch when you have guys like G behind me and James like they're they're getting the balls that not a lot of teams can so it's a lot easier to pitch like that Daniel Hager kenty sports radio James you entered the game in a bit of a slump but you got a home run and a double what kind of Chang in your approach today uh I was about three hours down here with Coach M just working on a bunch of fields I mean doing a bunch of crazy stuff and you know I just thank him for all you know everything it pours into us and and Reeves Reeves was down there with us too so yeah that was really cool yeah John Robert 50 pitches today just what's kind of your availability for the rest of the weekend uh so I'm going to say I'm going to get some rest tonight uh do some recovery um probably do a light day tomorrow or take it off no throw and then I'll be ready for Sunday for both of you guys Michael fo 56 what was it like playing postseason baseball here this reg yeah it's uh it's really cool you know seeing all the fans come out and uh you know they kind of Rush In The Gates there uh right when they open in BP like we were we were running in from doing our defensive work but you know it's cool just to see the rush into all the Terrace is there and uh they have our back full game yeah I would I would say that it's pretty cool um bbn's pretty awesome um being here is probably the greatest decision I've ever made um you know I couldn't thank M enough um and like this place what it means to me and so playing postseason baseball here it means a lot uh John clay leader following up on that what what does that do for you guys when you've got a crowd like that as you mentioned the way they showed up and supporting you playing at home what does that do for you during your game yeah it just puts the focus like on the front of the Jersey you know the Big Blue Nation everyone you know they they come out and support us when weather's raining I mean it was Vandy and it was I was getting there I was out right getting soaked and you know everyone else is still in the Outfield me and they're not running for cover but you know they they pour they pour their hearts in us and it's it's really cool to see yeah got Jeff Drummond Rivals James what did you see on on the Home Run pitch and it it looked like it was a quite a laser shot didn't get very high off the ground yeah I saw a slider the pitch before and uh it was cold a ball and he came back to it so I felt good swinging at it and uh I first hit I thought it was going to maybe hook a little bit more foul so I kind of got out of the box and I was like oh that's foul and then couple more steps like oh that's that's fair so I kind of you know it was cool to see it uh go over real big BL inside James you've been with the program for a while uh this is such a great opportunity obviously one game at a time but what kind of pressure if any are you guys feeling to take advantage of this uh I don't think there's much pressure you know we we prepare like like for these games or if you know bigger State stakes and uh you know we we just focus on preparing and you know preparing the best as we can so Paul Novelli 102.7 of the game Le blue network uh obviously the fifth inning they kind of come storming back uh threatening put a lot putting a lot of pressure on you guys really that whole inning what's the mood in The Dugout right after that to make sure that you guys come out and answer really and kind of grab momentum back and kind of seize control of the game again I mean I would say for us the biggest thing is just staying with us we don't we don't like to um see what they're doing and I mean if they score then like we're going to score right back or we're just going to keep trying to lift each other up we're not going to try and have any time in the game when we're down um that's our biggest thing is we like in The Dugout we like to be up no matter what the score is if we're up if we're down we're always going to be up in the Dugout having fun over there Michael prc.com for both of you how valuable is it with what you guys have to go through on a weekly basis when you're playing in your conference how valuable is that now when you get into this kind of situation I mean I would say it it definitely is valuable um but the team we play today like you saw they for resilient they uh they came out attacking and then I mean they almost came back you know so but having the experience we do in the SEC it definitely helps to where we can stop it and we know what what we are um I mean it's the best conference in the country I mean it says it for itself you know yeah I agree with that you know it's week in week out as you say it's a you know it's it's a tough schedule no matter who you're playing really and um it's interesting coach M always says you know those games all count the same and uh it just prepares you cuz week in week out it's you know tough team and uh tough lineups every day so and then you get you get to the um the game today and you know they're a tough lineup too and they took advantage of our mistakes and it's just a matter of you know we've been through it before we've been through it for 10 weeks in SEC so we uh we know how to we know how to battle it and come back down front right now Ryan black with the Lis CER Journal James in your first stance you kind of mentioned that being down here with Coach men for about hour doing a bunch of crazy stuff is kind of what helped a little today can you without maybe giving away Secrets can you kind of describe what some of this crazy stuff and what was it the clip from that uh I think one of the craziest thing was uh like if this is the plate here we put a te like where Reeves is and I'm standing there and he's like all right I want you to hit this ball off this te like at ammo over here and it was swinging miss it was like that was that looked weird but then it was like you know I feel something and uh you know it's Baseball's all about adjustments and um just having feel with your swing and you know figuring out those adjustments and what's working John Hong no media Robert can you talk a little bit about Dominic's performance and and what that means to the team yeah so that was awesome being able to see him and go out there and absolutely dominate um he's one of those guys that that we needed that to happen um and having him come out today do that and give us those Innings it saves arms for this weekend and so now we have a lot of guys for tomorrow I mean um and it's just something where we can all build off that we can all build off each other and we know we trust everyone who who gets the ball more questions for the student athletes yep than so one more this one's uh for Robert though as a kid you probably dreamed playing you know in the playoffs or or postseason baseball on the mound trying to get that final out what was that like today in front of this home crowd when that you know when you can finally tell hey we're going to we're going to win this thing we're going to get out of it right what's that going through your mind and have you was it everything you probably thought of as a kid uh being on the mound for that final out the game like that would be I mean I guess I can't it's kind of makes me speechless cuz I didn't really have any thoughts I was just like you know I'm just getting this out you know and um I mean it's one of those things where playing baseball's hard and it's like every other game I mean there was a lot of people and I mean every weekend we have it and it's like I thought of it it's just another weekend it's another weekend in playing baseball having fun Robert you play a lot of baseball you came here you bet on yourself you came through the portal and you played a big role all year what does it meant to you to be a part of this and help lift this program to a place it's never been before uh um it's a pretty special feeling I mean this place is unreal um and like I've said before I uh there's no place I'd rather be right now than than here in Kentucky playing for this school in the state um the guys too they're my brothers and I I I don't know what else to say is it's it's just pretty awesome being here and being able to play for the these guys coach Ming everyone it's uh it's like nothing I could ever asked for any more for student athletes all right guys thank you you're free to go get that one you need another one James thank you sorry I did not give you an opening St no that's right opening statement from coach that I forgot um when they open them Gates about 90 minutes before just to watch our fans like just rush to get to their spots it was uh it was a surre surreal feeling um I've been to another place where it's been like that but we hadn't had that yet and um so I first off want to thank our fans for showing up um in the sun and the heat they showed up it was 90 minutes I believe it was 90 minutes before the game and they're waiting to sit there they waited an hour and a half until the game even started and then they sat through um how long was that game somebody helped me three and a half almost three and a half so our fans they sat there for five hours um so just super thankful uh to them I thought Dom gave us a great start um he went four shut out to start and then give them a lot of credit they started putting balls in play um with two strikes they just flick the balls hit it really quite frankly where we weren't and um that's a really good team they're champions for a reason so um but I thought Don he got us a lot of big outs I thought cam O'Brien the job that he did to come in in the fifth was uh crucial um where we were able to minimize thought Evan Byer got us two outs then obviously Hogan was fantastic got us 10 outs and they had their chances give them a lot of credit they put a lot of pressure on us but I give our guys credit um we bent but we didn't break so so um they did score in two innings but they didn't score in the other seven and I thought that was the difference in the game Nick Michael 566 was there a little nail biting there I mean it was close there it was tight and does that kind of give a wake up call to the guys like at this point every single team is going to be good um you know we've been you guys have watched display how many times we've been in that same game I just feel like we've been there so many times um I don't buy my nails my wife's proud um Reeves do you still buy yours are you good all right re stopped biting so no one I know Kristen doesn't bite her nails so no one in our family buys her nails but was it man intense and every play and every inch matter absolutely but to our point the other day we've been in those games um for 15 weeks so this is the 16th week of it so I I thought our guys absolutely responded you know I thought a big um moment in the game was in the fifth they scor five and then we immediately scor two and I thought that was the difference in the game they immediately scor five and we answer backward too I thought that was big right there Ethan Grant SC coverage so dein burgs he's had his up and down to all year but just leave it off right where he left off last year in the regional can you just talk about how he played today the guy is just clutch he had four key blocks kept the game in front the entire time and every one of those blocks saved us a base which ultimately saved us a run so I thought his leadership was fantastic um um his verbal and non-verbal behind the plate is absolutely crucial and there's there's a reason why we bat him in a three hole you know I think you can look at Stats and other things but that guy is as tough and he's as clutch as anybody in our program so um he was five for five today quality I bats um it was five for five every ibat he did something positive for Kentucky so um I thought that was good and then um you know I thought the production up and down our lineup was crucial I talked about our pitching I mentioned some of our defense but um we had seven different guys that had an RBI seven and if you look at what our seven eight n guys did they scored five of our 10 runs between those guys so I think anytime you have that kind of production up and down the lineup um it obviously makes us hard to beat and uh we were able to do it all we had bunts bombs ran the bases Stan bases got thrown out a couple times being aggressive but we were on the full-on attack uh we drew walks we got hit by pitches and uh we hit on a lot of lot of cylinders um offensively far left Michael prey nw.com today starts a journey for a lot of teams who are hoping it goes for two or three weeks and ends up inaha when you had a program that's had a lot of success but has never been there can you talk about The Hunger of the people who were coming in the stands 90 minutes before your hunger your players's hunger to get to a place as place as they yeah um been a lot of work a lot of ups and downs I've learned a lot as a coach I haven't been perfect um but the one thing I will say is that as our program has continued to try to climb and make adjustments and get better our fans have done the same thing and you can just see year after year you can just see it building from the end of 22 to last year to this year and I want to compliment this team and you guys have heard me say this a lot they are so good at moving on to the next thing like we talk all the time you've heard us say about this wind will expire at midnight and it will they will move they move on immediately and that's how you know La this year we look up and at one point we're 15 and one in the league it's like it's incredible how are you able to do that and if I told our team hey we better go 15 in one at the beginning year they' been like coach you're crazy but they've literally literally have taken each game and they move on and they say next and it's a new day win or lose next next next next next and ultimately it's a lot like building a house you really have to do it a brick house you do have to do it one brick at a time and you got to keep laying I mean one one gets off you got to reset it and uh get it going and you just keep going and then by the time you look up and you do that enough times for a long enough period of time after a while you look up and you're like wow look at this we we built a mansion but you can only do it one brick at a time and that's what we've attempted to do back there b Greener D1 baseball uh coach you talked about the fifth inning and I think going into that inning Domino only giv up one hit and I think we all agree he pitched better than the stat line they had three three infield base hits and a blo that inning scored five runs how do you keep the guys from getting frustrated or yourself from getting frustrated when teams are doing those frustrating things to you that you've been doing to them all season long yeah um that's where it's our ability to move on I thought it helped you know because I I did not think Dom got frustrated I thought he just kept making his pitch and it was like boom they put the ball in play give him credit boom they put it in play but I thought he held I thought he held true to who he was he didn't get frustrated and um you're right that's us at our best where we're putting balls in play and creating pressure and and making plays um so I thought he did that and I thought cam he settled that game too cam O'Brien he did what he's done all year he's been our fireman every time it gets to a spot where we need to bring in a fireman boom and it gets hairy he's right there and um um I thought they held it together and I I I also again like how we responded right after you know to score two immediately I thought that was crucial yeah obviously when you're up eight nothing it looks like maybe you're going to be able to fake it out today without using any of your top levers you have to do what you have to do to win the game but how do you feel about the pitching situation yeah you know if um you asked me before the game how was it going to go it was going to go Dom to Hogan and we used cam in between there and we used Evan who got us obviously two outs and you could see hogi was starting to run on fumes there at the end so I even think those two outs by Evan buers was big you know so but that was the plan to go right to Dom right to Hogan so um would it have been nice up eight nothing to try to put the game away yes but that's a good team that's a good team and it was going to be hard to put them away and if you look at that team how many times they scored eight or more runs in their last 15 games it's pretty impressive it's pretty impressive so I knew deep down that they were going to make their run and their push um and uh it it played out the way we wanted with Hogan kind of follow up on Mike's question obv as a number two overall seed you're very capable of getting where you want to go but how do you keep the guys loose and concentrate on the on the goal but also have fun and play loose yeah um they've actually done that all year and there's a couple times where I got to be honest John like I'm I'm looking down I'm like do I want to look down and see what they're doing I'm like they're like you know what I mean like I don't I really don't have to really coach that as much with this group because uh they're keeping it Loose today I saw the cap stack I don't know if you saw that this was new but they mixed in camo did you guys catch that it was like regular cap then a camo cap then a regular cap then a camo and like they brought the camo I saw them sitting on the bench I'm like early in the game I'm like I bet that's for the cap stack whenever we do that like so they're thinking ahead I saw Jackson Novi today I really look I'm walking down a dogout I'm getting ready to coaching I was like Jackson noi have full catcher gear on leftand a pitcher I'm like all right they're loose they're loose um so we need them to keep playing that way but it all starts they can only be loose if they compete first and they know that it starts that is the building block of anything we do you have to compete at the highest level yeah on Coach expanding on Dom what kind of went in that decision for him to start today um well our starters you guys know this those that have follow our program closely you've been there I think about every game um we've gotten a lot of mileage out of our starters they have thrown a bulk of innings and when we're at our best they take us deep into the game well they've done that so therefore they've thrown a good bit and um so we chose to not throw Dom as much in the SEC tournament if you remember we threw him for maybe an inning to get out of there and he was kind of not beat up but he's just there's some things that going on so we really gave him some good rest and I give Coach Rosel credit him and Don work uh worked this this past week and actually moved down on the rubber some and I thought that adjustment really helped you know and that's the thing I just compliment our guys James we tried like honestly 30 different things with him 30 different things to get him these different feels and you would put a ball over here and you got to hit the ball over there then I put a ball in a tea over here said okay try your hands right here okay put your elbows together spread your feet out spread out get your hip in there a little more try that and it's like back and forth and it's like all right do circles okay angle your bat this way James try that no that didn't work okay grab this stick right here this big PVC pipe swing that thing okay you hear the swoosh okay try that no that didn't work okay I'm going to hold your hip right here and like you're going to swing and it was like it was a marathon but to his credit he just wanted to be coached and he wanted to figure it out and same thing with dom I give him a lot of credit he made an adjustment on the Rubber and it paid big dividends um so I appreciate about our team they're always trying to get better all of them even the guys on the bench are finding ways to get in there and um we have good players that didn't get a chance to get in but um they'll be ready when their time's called but they work what what's the difference in mentality if if any from the position you were in last season and had the fight out of and and taking care of the first game this season game two has been our uh deal as you in 17 we won the first game wost the second one in 23 win the first one lose the second one so um we've got to be able to way you know to win a regional you know this you can win it in three games or you got to do it in five so um we haven't done in those two years we have not won the second game that has been our biggest challenge so um now we have p and memo both available rested on good rest to win this try to win the second game against a really good team um so um guys this has been a really cool uh 5 days really cool 5 days um we had our selection show with our number two national seat e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e