Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione, June 11, 2023. (AP Photograph/Tyler Kaufman)
After hitting a lead-off double within the high of the seventh inning Sunday evening, Kentucky’s Nolan McCarthy took off for third base when he noticed the ball get away from Oregon State’s catcher. As he neared third, McCarthy observed that OSU’s pitcher wasn’t masking house plate. So he bolted for home, ignoring his third-base coach’s directions to cease.
McCarthy’s head-first slide into house gave the Wildcats a 3-2 lead, which they held onto for the victory, thus capturing their first NCAA Tremendous Regional victory. It booked Kentucky’s first-ever trip to the Men’s College World Series.
>> Subscribe to Sports Spectrum Magazine for more stories where sports and faith connect <<
KPP AFTER DARK RAHHHHHHHHHH
CATS LEAD!
💻https://t.co/HR1RSLRUaB (@ESPNU)#WeAreUK x #RoadToOmaha | @NolanMcCarthy9 pic.twitter.com/107bxuwygP
— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) June 10, 2024
“I noticed it squeak by,” McCarthy said in the postgame press conference. “I used to be operating to 3rd. I instantly noticed their pitcher wasn’t masking. I feel I ran by a cease signal, nevertheless it ended up understanding. Nobody was masking house, so would possibly as nicely take what they’re going to offer you.”
The cease signal he ran by was given by head coach Nick Mingione, who was teaching third however more than pleased to see his junior centerfielder slide house safely.
“Nolan is the man that desires to make the particular play,” Mingione stated within the press convention. “I used to be telling him to cease verbally, OK, not bodily. However the sport was in entrance of him, and I’m pleased he went as a result of he noticed one thing. And we enable our gamers to make choices on their very own.”
The win continues an unimaginable season for Kentucky, which is the No. 2 total seed for the NCAA Event, and now 45-14 on the season. That mark is tied for essentially the most wins in class historical past, and the crew will get an opportunity so as to add to it when the College World Series kicks off Friday in Omaha.
Main Kentucky deeper into the NCAA Event than any coach earlier than him had Mingione “crammed with gratitude” Sunday evening. He’s now in his eighth season main this system (after by no means beforehand being a head coach at any stage), and final month he collected his second Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year award; he gained SEC and Nationwide Coach of the Yr in 2017, after his first season in cost.
Congratulations to @UKBaseball Head Coach Nick Mingione for being named the @SEC Coach of the Yr! 👏 pic.twitter.com/mnPctfb6eE
— Kentucky Athletics (@UKAthletics) May 21, 2024
“This has been one of the best two weeks of my life,” Mingione stated Sunday evening. “Yep. I imply, I don’t know how one can make it higher.”
He was alluding to the spectacular run his crew has been on, but in addition to a call his younger son, Reeves, just lately made. With Reeves sitting to his proper on the press convention Sunday, Mingione stated that at a crew gathering for the NCAA Event choice present, “This little dude stands up and he invitations the crew to his baptism [the following] Thursday. So then the entire crew voluntarily — they didn’t have to come back; I instructed them two totally different instances, ‘Guys, don’t really feel like it’s a must to come’ — they present up.
“… I don’t understand how you can have a greater two weeks. As mother and father, for him to make the best resolution he may ever make in his life, after which to offer our followers and our gamers an expertise they’ll always remember, [it’s incredible].”
Mingione additionally detailed within the press convention how 2022 was a extremely tough time for him, however that’s when God taught him a beneficial lesson. He stated he was a “beat-down coach” from attempting to do all of it on his personal, and he lastly received to a degree of give up. Within the press convention, he then performed a music from his telephone, Phil Wickham’s “Battle Belongs.”
“This music describes completely how God modified my life that evening,” Mingione stated.
“You’ll be able to’t make this up. Solely God could make this up,” Mingione continued. “Folks instructed me it will be unimaginable for Kentucky to make it to Omaha. I actually had folks inform me that. And that day I surrendered, and that is what the Lord has finished.”
He then turned to Reeves, who is aware of a Bible verse for each letter within the alphabet.
“I’m a proud father of that. Reeves, what’s your ‘J’ Bible verse?” Mingione requested.
“Jesus checked out them intently and stated, ‘Humanly talking it isn’t attainable. However with God something is feasible,’” Reeves stated, quoting Matthew 19:26.
Coach Mingione then continued, “God taught me a lesson: It’s not what you’re enjoying for; it’s Who you’re enjoying for. And I received finished chasing this dream of Omaha, and I simply stated, ‘I’m finished. I’m not chasing that anymore. Lord, I wish to play for You.’ … So right here we stand at this time. I give Him all the honour and glory, to God be the glory. Superb. And I hope you respect my transparency as a result of that was actual.”
“I am finished. I am not chasing that anymore Lord. I wish to play for You.”
Take heed to this highly effective message from @UKBaseball coach Nick Mingione (and his son Reeves) after punching their ticket to their first Faculty World Sequence pic.twitter.com/gTv9zTjPZN
— Sports activities Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) June 10, 2024
Mingione additionally shared about his religion in Christ on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in April 2019. He was requested about how he lives out his religion whereas additionally doing his job of teaching a baseball program.
“One factor I’ll by no means do is power it on anyone. I don’t ever try this,” he stated. “I might simply hope that — and that is certainly one of my prayers — after they see me, they see the sunshine of Christ. That might be my prayer; that was my prayer this morning in our coaches Bible research. Nevertheless it’s simply that they’d see that and they’d say, ‘Man, there’s one thing totally different about that man. What’s it?’ And finally, it will be the Lord. That might be the distinction.”
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
RELATED STORIES:
– SS PODCAST: Nick Mingione, Kentucky Baseball Head Coach
– SS PODCAST: Legendary Kentucky baseball coach Keith Madison on identity in Christ
– Sam Houston’s Rome Shubert plays finale 6 years after surviving school shooting
– ECU’s Parker Byrd becomes 1st D-I player w/ prosthesis, seeks ‘to share His light’
– SS PODCAST: Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe on basketball, hope, trusting in God’s plan