Brown: Kentucky baseball run fueled by Nick Mingione’s change of heart, transfer players

The COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 NCAA baseball season a month into play, yet it helped transform Kentucky for the better.

The Wildcats might not be playing Oregon State in the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals this weekend had it not been for the changes UK baseball coach Nick Mingione made as a result of his unexpected spring four years ago.

Mingione took the Cats to their first super regional in program history during his first season in 2017 with a roster he largely inherited from former coach Gary Henderson.

But in 2018 they failed to reach the NCAA Tournament, and in 2019 — after posting the only losing season of Mingione’s tenure — they didn’t make the postseason at all, including the SEC Tournament.

So with the season canceled in 2020, and not many places to go while the pandemic had the nation on lockdown, Mingione began calling former players. He wanted a deeper insight into what worked and what didn’t from his coaching approach.

He wanted to know how he could be better.

Those former players didn’t hold back from offering real insight. One of the points Mingione took to heart was in how he built relationships.

As a first-time head coach, he may have taken for granted the continual work he needed to do in that regard. But it was clear to Mingione that he needed to show a different side of himself to the players, not just what he displayed as a coach on the field.

“I needed to meet them where they were at,” Mingione said. “It couldn’t just be one way or no way. So I’ve just had to learn how to adjust and adapt and continue to, once you get them here, to develop the relationship piece with them.”

Mingione said he also took from those conversations some ideas on how to “continue to build our team culture and to let them take more ownership in the program.”

That advice became particularly relevant as Mingione tapped into the transfer portal to help build the Cats.

Their roster got enhanced with the additions of players including designated hitter Nick Lopez (USC), third baseman Mitchell Daly (Texas) and first baseman Ryan Nicholson (Cincinnati), a Louisville native who played at St. Xavier High School.

Four of UK’s top five batters in terms of hits, home runs and RBIs came from the portal. Two of their regular starting pitchers — Trey Pooser (Charleston) and Dominic Niman (Central Connecticut) — did, too.

Mingione didn’t just go after talent, he pursued players who would be the right fit in the locker room and on the field, which is a distinction he didn’t always acknowledge during his first few seasons.

“Now we have the right people here,” Mingione said.

Lopez is an example of how they got it right.

UK is his fourth school after starting at Illinois-Chicago and spending a year at Santa Ana Community College.

UK assistant coach Austin Cousino had ties to people who knew Lopez well to get a feel for his character. Assistant coach Nick Ammirati evaluated how he’d fit in as a player. They reached the conclusion that he could be developed into a solid player.

“He could switch hit, and he didn’t bat right-handed last year,” Mingione said. “Give coach (Ammirati) a lot of credit, to make his right-hand swing better, and I thought that really helped him.”

Lopez, who at times last season batted eighth in the USC lineup, leads the team in doubles and triples. UK primarily uses him as its cleanup batter, and he’s responded with a .356 batting average this season and was named first-team All-SEC.

The Cats’ historic run to capturing their first SEC regular-season title since 2006 and claiming the No. 2 overall national seed wouldn’t have been possible without the transfers. And it wouldn’t have happened without the transition Mingione made post-pandemic.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.