March 17, 2026 • 19 mins
Darren Headrick talks with Head Coach Nick Mingione
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a three and oh start to SEC play for
Kentucky Baseball after they got three wins against Alabama this
week at Kentucky Proud Park, and we welcome you into
the Nick Minji owned show. Good evening, everybody. I'm Darren Heddrick.
The Wildcats have won thirteen straight after a four and
oh week. Overall, they're eighteen and two and like I mentioned,
a three and oh start to SEC play, a lot
(00:20):
of fun moments, big highlights and a lot of thrilling
action over the weekend against Alabama. We'll get to all
of it with coach over the next half hour. We'll
also answer your questions from social media and we'll get
some update on the individuals that had big time performances
this week, and we'll look forward to the next series
against Ole Miss on the road in Oxford that begins
(00:41):
Thursday night. Stick around over the next half hour as
we chat with coach Menjeon here on the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Welcome back into the Nick MinJe Oon Show. Everybody. I'm
Darren Hedrick.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
We've got the head coach alongside if the Wildcats swept
Alabama this weekend to open SEC play and coach a
wild series but another typical weekend at the SEC. Right
grants to your team on a hard earned sweep against
the Tide.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, hard earned is right, and just really happy and
proud of the guys and for so many ways. I mean,
the first two games we have to come from behind,
and then obviously yesterday where we have a lead and
they punch back like all SEC teams I feel like
do and close it out. So just hard to sweep
a team, especially an SEC play And you know you
(01:26):
know this, but you never take any wins for granted,
especially against a really well coached Alabama team that only
had three losses. They were fifteen and three coming into
the weekend. It shows you how how good they are.
But proud of the guys for getting it done.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Nate Harris was special on Sunday, six hitless, scoreless innings.
Now he ran into a little trouble there in the seventh,
but six hitless innings to build a five nothing lead.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
What did you see out of the sophomore against Alabama?
No hits until the seventh.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
But you know, you and I talk about this all
the time, but in college baseball, when you can throw
two pitches for a strike, then you start doing three
and four pitches for a strike. It changes the game
because now when the guys communicate, they communicate right, It's like, Hey,
what'd you get? Well, I got to curveball. Hey I
got a change up. Well, he didn't throw me a
(02:18):
change up. He threw me the cutter. Oh, he threw
me a four steamer.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Two.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
There's just unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
And I was so happy for him, for our fans
when he finally gave up the first hit the way
the fans came around of applause and it was one
of those where you know this, but you're looking up
at that scoreboard and you keep seeing them zeros and
you're like, don't say a word, don't say it work.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
You're thinking it. Speaking of the crowd, amazing this weekend
against Alabama. And I talked to Hudson Brown after Saturday's
win and he talked about how it was almost like
a regional atmosphere and that lifted the team and that
come from behind eight to seven win.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, you know this, but sometimes the weather could be
tough here in Lexington early in the year, and you know,
youth baseball hasn't started yet. But now youth baseball's cranked
up in Lexington. You go to any of the parks
throughout our city and they're just filled with kids, and
the atmosphere that we have for the kids is awesome.
So for our players a lot of times early the year,
I say all that because we have to sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Create our own energy.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
So now when the fans are there and they're creating
the energy and we can join along, it makes it
that much better. And this weekend was one of those weekends,
So thank you to all the fans.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
In terms of the weather, Sunday, the wind was like
I've never seen at Kentucky Proud Park, gusting thirty forty
miles an hour, and you and I were talking pregame
about it. It was blowing across the foul poles right
to left, and I remember thinking, Man, if they get
the ball in flight today, it's going to travel. But
it actually was the opposite, it wasn't it. The wind
was knocking those fly balls down and making it treacherous
(03:54):
for outfielders.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Especially from left center field all the way over to
right field.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, the fact that Hoddy hit a home.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Run and he it just I would literally I would
have loved to see how far that ball would have
went with no end or the win that we had
maybe Friday. But so our guys did a phenomenal job.
And it started in the very first inning talking about Hudson,
and we talked in the pregame that there was going
to be an infielder that would literally catch a ball
(04:22):
with his shoulders to the leftfield foul pole, which that
sounds weird, right, So Huddy actually caught a pop up
in foul territory with his back to the infield. He
had to angle his body on the same line as
the first base line because that's which way.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
The ball was coming in.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
We talked about in our pregame, and the second he
did that, like the dugout was going crazy, but I
thought everybody. Schwartz made a diving play played to win, right, great,
Jase did it twice even just defensively. While we're on this,
Luke's diving play up the middle. Yes, Sern he made
a great backhand get the lead out at second. OJ
was phenomenal behind the plate. I mean it it's just
(05:00):
Scott Campbell Junior came in and made two great throws
to home. So defensively, the wind definitely presented a challenge
and I thought the guys played it masterfully.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And one more on that because we noticed a couple
of times when pitchers, when they were in their delivery,
the wind would blow their cap off or something on
the mound. When you're out there and it's forty mile
an hour gus, how much does that affect a pitcher,
Maybe in his balance, especially when he's going off that
launch foot trying to get his pitch home.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It makes it even more special what they did.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, because being a right handed pitcher, the wind was
at his back and could have and should have just
blown him off the mound.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
But his routine is phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
If you watch him, he is so meticulous about what
he does pre pitch, during all of his pitches, and
really it takes a tremendous amount of strength. Really when
you think about a forty mile an hour wind. I
was in a third base coaching box getting knocked over
a so yeah, it does affect it. It does actually help.
It can help some of the shapes of the pitches.
When you throw your curveball into the wind, it does
(06:05):
have a chance to knock it down some so that
could play a factor.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
But he did a great job of that.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Going back to Nate Harris, just real quick, how have
you just seen him grow since he I mean he
was a Friday night starter as a freshman and was
successful in the sleep last year. Now sophomore season and
he's pitching on Sundays. How have you seen him continue
to grow? To his ability to move on?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Darren? Nate is a very bright individual.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I mean academically, like I don't need to share his
GPA publicly.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
But he is. It's good, really good, and it's high
right well.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
His ability to process something and then move on has
gotten so much better because a lot of times the
smarter you are, the more analytical and the more you
can think, which sometimes cannot be the best thing in
the world. But his ability is to not overthink things
and to move on and just to settle in and
go on to what's next has been fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Let's suck a little offense now is Kentucky had plenty
of it this weekend against Alabama. Let's start with Hudson Brown.
This young man bunn did a run and then he
drove into with some mammoth home runs this weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
What a skilled hitter. Hudson Brown proved to be.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yes and you know, I told our guys, if you
can lay down a bun and hit a bomb, that
be plus that be equals another b and that means
you're a ballplayer. Hudson Brown, ballplayer A button a bomb
is pretty special. And you know Hindle did that this weekend.
He did the same thing. He laid down a bun
(07:34):
and hit a bomb. But his growth has been phenomenal,
and to think about where he was three years ago
to where he's at now is really just such a
tribute to him and his work ethic and the way
the players respond to him. Darren, I thought he broke
my hand when he gave me five coming around there,
and I was like.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yes, he's a strong guy.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
But yeah, the way that reacts to him too, it's
fun to see. You know, every player has your own
unique relationship with the guys and what they bring to
the table for the team, and the way they rally
behind him. And the ball that he ripped and just
like cut through the wind yesterday was super impressive. I
did not think anyone was getting a ball out to ride.
And I'll never underestimate Hudson Brown again.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Well, coach, we'll get to some fan questions in our
next segment, but I wanted to stay with some of
the individual performances and I wrote down several names of
guys that made clutch pitches, like Ira Austin to get
out of that eighth inning jam. You know, Nile Adcock,
the way you finished the game on Sunday against Alabama.
Luke Lawrence came through with some clutch hits for you
(08:41):
to drive in runs. Ryan Schwartz had a big home run.
So we could go down the list, but overall the
biggest question is how impressed were you with the way
this team executed in the clutch, because that's what you
have to do to win these SEC games, and your
team did it three times.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
You're exactly right.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
And you know, one thing that we talk to the
team about is, hey, we don't want to talk about winning.
We want to focus on doing what it takes to win.
And to your point, there were so many winning plays
and winning moments, and a guy that we hadn't spoken
about yet.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Was Jack Bennett. The job that he's done.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
So when you think about what Ira did on Sunday
and Jack Bennett did on Friday and Saturday and the
outst Turkey, I call him Turkey Berkeley bounds God for us, right,
you just start going up and down, Nile Adcock.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I mean, you just keep going through. Our bullpen went
eight and a third on Saturday, and typically typically that's
hard to win and sweep a series.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
When you have to cover basically an entire game with
your bullpen, that makes it that much more challenging.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And to the guy's credit, they did it.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
You know, Jack Sushi got us a couple, got us
a huge out yesterday and a ground ball. I mean,
so you we just start going up and down and
the job the guys did was phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
That's what it was going to take.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Kentucky will be at Old Miss Thursday through Saturday. It's
a short turnaround this week for a rare Thursday through
Saturday series against the Rebels. Two night games and they'll
finish up Saturday at three o'clock Eastern.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Let's take our first time out.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
We'll chat with coach when we come back and answer
some of your questions here on the Nick Men's You
Own Show. This is the UK Sports Network final segment
of the Nick MinJe oone radio show for this week,
as the Wildcats get set to travel down to Oxford
to take on the Old Miss Rebels, who went down
to Texas and beat the Longhorns, but ultimately dropped that
series in Austin two games to one, best of three,
(10:40):
and so the Wildcats will take on the Rebels this
weekend in Oxford. But Coach, we had some questions from
fans that were sent to us via x and you
can do that on social media. We'll try to get
to as many as we can. But one of them
I thought was a great question from Thomas. He said,
you've done great work in the portal, you and your
staff contributors on the pitching staff, a few position players
(11:03):
making huge contributions, and what are some of the key
metrics you use to evaluate players who have come in
and played such huge roles, especially not just this year,
but the last several years.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Well, that's a great question, and we can literally spend
an entire show on this, so I'll try to be quick,
but give Austin Kus and our recruiting coordinator a lot
of credit. We have access now more than ever with
so much data and so much video. So the second
guy's name goes into portal, we immediately do a statistic.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Search on him.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
If we like what we see and just the traditional
stats e er innings pitched, what role they were used
in walks to strikeouts, all those things. If they all
of a sudden have some stats there that pop up
for us, we put them into one bucket, okay, and
then we go back and then we do a deep
dive on each guy. And the one nice thing that
(11:57):
we can do is we have a ton of video.
So but with all the analytics that we have, we
have the guy's average fastball velocity, his max fastball velocity,
what's the swing and miss on his fastball, what's the
swing and miss on his all speed, what's the shape
of his all speed? How does it move horizontally, how
does it move vertically? So we have all this data, okay,
(12:18):
and it can be overwhelming, excuse me, But what we
need to do is once we find the right metrics
and guys that fit our profile, so we have a
range for each statistical category that we like, and then
as the guys start lighting up in green and all
the things that we deem are important, then the phone
(12:40):
call into reaching out and that process starts. So really
there's an evaluation piece, then the recruiting piece starts and
then positionally, same thing, traditional stats, the home runs, extra
base hits, all that. Well, then what is their batting
average verse ninety miles an hour plus how well do
they hit spin? You know, we have a clutch factor
statistics that we created, so there's so much many things
(13:00):
that go into it, but it's not just your traditional ones.
And then we place a lot of emphasis. I'll close
with this the phone call. Is there a connection? Because
we are looking for guys that we feel like will
fit what we're trying to do. And one of the
first questions I asked is, hey, what do you know
about Kentucky and what do you know about Kentucky baseball?
(13:21):
To see if they've done their homework and then if
there's a match, then we proceed.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
We've had several questions asking about Tyler Bell in his
recovery process. It was great to see him back in
the lineup Sunday and he came through with a couple
of hits at double and a big two run single
to help the Cats build that early five to nothing lead.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, and you know, coming back from an injury like this,
we knew that there would be days where he would
be a little sore, and he was really sore on Friday,
and he came in Saturday fell great, wanted to play.
Told them, hey man, I keep showing them the schedule,
and I keep showing them where the College World Series is,
and I keep reminding them our goals to get to
hear right, And he I thought he's gonna bite my
(14:00):
face off when I told him, hey man, you're not
starting today. If we have a chance for an abat,
I'll let you know. And he was so bad. But
my job, as you know, Darren, is to protect these guys.
And I think as much as Tyler as any player
I've ever coached.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And he was good on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Strength was there and we got him back in there,
and I'm so thankful we did because he obviously got
two hits knocked into scored us one, so he was
responsible for half our runs.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Can you speak to how I mean watching his at
bats and watching how he works in the cages before
the game, it's almost like this professional, mature approach beyond
his years. Can you just talk about what it's like
coaching him and helping his development along. You know, Darren,
he is so smart and the way he processes things
(14:49):
with each at at each pitcher. You know, in a
lot of ways it is on a different level. And
when you're a guy like him, you know, you rely
on other people's information on maybe movement patterns and shapes
of pitches. But in a lot of ways, he gets
pitched totally different than some other guys. So for him,
he's got to figure out his abat.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Because what they're doing to somebody else may not be
doing what they're doing to him. So for him to process, evaluate,
to watch, to understand, to gather information with every pitch,
it's a really high level. And he has an absolute
feel and knacked for finding the barrel and so you know,
for him just to be able to he works his
butt off on all the defense, but just the abats.
(15:33):
I think it's been really good for him, even with
him being out, to be in the abats with each
guy has been really good for him, and I believe
it's helped develop him as a hitter.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, I was going to mention that too.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
One thing that the fans don't really get to see
is how he talks with his teammates and communicates with them,
and he'll watch them in the cages and help them along.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
In addition to the staff.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
He's one of those guys that when he speaks, everybody
else listens.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
And one of the questions that we asked in the
Fall after the Fall was over, hey, who on our
team positionally when they speak, everybody listens. It's a really
good question. Yeah, a new question we asked this year.
Every year, I feel like we're asking our team different
questions to learn. And he was one of the two
(16:17):
guys I got the most votes. When Tyler Bell speaks,
the team listens, and his communication with the guys they
trust him. Yeah, it's definitely a neat combination.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Another question we got was from Nathan and he asked,
what are some things that has been a great surprise
about this team? And then what are some areas that
this team is still working to improve as the season progresses.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Well, I wouldn't say grow, I guess yeah, that's great.
I would say not maybe a surprise, but a thing
that I'm thankful for. And maybe you can call it
a surprise because you just don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
But can your team.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Execute what it needs to do to win a baseball
There's so many things that go into it. You have
to have good starting pitching, Your bullpen has to perform,
you have to make routine plays and you have to
be able to get timely hits.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
So this team's ability to put themselves in baseball games,
and not only to put him in, but then to
be able to execute it a surprise. I don't know
if it's a surprise, but as a coach, you go
in and you think you know what your team is
going to be able to do. But let's be honest, like,
you don't know until those lights turn on, or for us,
until the Empire says playball in a new year. Because we
don't play a lot of light I guess, so you
(17:33):
just don't know. So super thankful that we have a
team that has been able to execute what it takes
to win, and then moving forward, I want to see
us too. You know, there's been times on weekends where
we haven't got through three great starts by all starters.
And by the way, a guy we haven't mentioned yet,
Jackson Jolkin. What a job he did Friday night. I
(17:55):
just feel like we could talk about him every week.
He's like Tyler Bell, right, like he can work his
way in to the show every week. But Joe did
an awesome job and gave us an unbelievable chance to
win and got us a win, but so our ability
to just I want a weekend where all of the
starters click because that helps in so many ways, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So I want to continue to get.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Quality starts out of our starters, whether that's in a
midweek and a carry all the way through through the weekend.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
We got just a couple of minutes left in the show,
but a few listeners have asked about Ben Cleaver. He
had a tough outing Saturday, but coach, I know he's
working hard. You not talked about what a great bullpen
he had during the week can kind of tell us
where he is just trying to get back to being
the Ben Cleaver we.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Know he is.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, And one thing we forget about is he missed
the majority of the fall and you know, pitchers, they
need opportunities on that mound, and we believe that he's
We're going to keep rolling him out there.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
He's too good and our team needs him.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
So he worked on some things mechanically last week didn't
necessarily maybe translate to the game, but they will.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
He's an unbelievable competitor.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
And we'll get him back in that strike zone and
competing and you look at his numbers, you look at
his ra you're like, man, he's just not going deep
into games and we want him to do that, and
I know he wants that too, so he's continuing to
work and make progress.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Coach, it was a great week for your team. As
we wrap up the show here, going down to Oxford
this weekend against Ole Miss I know Kentucky's played well
down there in the past.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Good luck to the Wildcats.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Thank you go Katz And that's head coach Nick Minjeon.
We thank everybody for listening to the Nick Menjeon Show
this week. Join us next Monday night at seven thirty
and don't forget if you miss any of these shows,
you can find them, watch or listen on uksnallaccess dot
com until next Monday. I'm Darren Hedrick for Coach Menjeone.
This is the UK Sports Network
It's a three and oh start to SEC play for
Kentucky Baseball after they got three wins against Alabama this
week at Kentucky Proud Park, and we welcome you into
the Nick Minji owned show. Good evening, everybody. I'm Darren Heddrick.
The Wildcats have won thirteen straight after a four and
oh week. Overall, they're eighteen and two and like I mentioned,
a three and oh start to SEC play, a lot
(00:20):
of fun moments, big highlights and a lot of thrilling
action over the weekend against Alabama. We'll get to all
of it with coach over the next half hour. We'll
also answer your questions from social media and we'll get
some update on the individuals that had big time performances
this week, and we'll look forward to the next series
against Ole Miss on the road in Oxford that begins
(00:41):
Thursday night. Stick around over the next half hour as
we chat with coach Menjeon here on the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Welcome back into the Nick MinJe Oon Show. Everybody. I'm
Darren Hedrick.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
We've got the head coach alongside if the Wildcats swept
Alabama this weekend to open SEC play and coach a
wild series but another typical weekend at the SEC. Right
grants to your team on a hard earned sweep against
the Tide.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, hard earned is right, and just really happy and
proud of the guys and for so many ways. I mean,
the first two games we have to come from behind,
and then obviously yesterday where we have a lead and
they punch back like all SEC teams I feel like
do and close it out. So just hard to sweep
a team, especially an SEC play And you know you
(01:26):
know this, but you never take any wins for granted,
especially against a really well coached Alabama team that only
had three losses. They were fifteen and three coming into
the weekend. It shows you how how good they are.
But proud of the guys for getting it done.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Nate Harris was special on Sunday, six hitless, scoreless innings.
Now he ran into a little trouble there in the seventh,
but six hitless innings to build a five nothing lead.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
What did you see out of the sophomore against Alabama?
No hits until the seventh.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
But you know, you and I talk about this all
the time, but in college baseball, when you can throw
two pitches for a strike, then you start doing three
and four pitches for a strike. It changes the game
because now when the guys communicate, they communicate right, It's like, Hey,
what'd you get? Well, I got to curveball. Hey I
got a change up. Well, he didn't throw me a
(02:18):
change up. He threw me the cutter. Oh, he threw
me a four steamer.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Two.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
There's just unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
And I was so happy for him, for our fans
when he finally gave up the first hit the way
the fans came around of applause and it was one
of those where you know this, but you're looking up
at that scoreboard and you keep seeing them zeros and
you're like, don't say a word, don't say it work.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
You're thinking it. Speaking of the crowd, amazing this weekend
against Alabama. And I talked to Hudson Brown after Saturday's
win and he talked about how it was almost like
a regional atmosphere and that lifted the team and that
come from behind eight to seven win.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, you know this, but sometimes the weather could be
tough here in Lexington early in the year, and you know,
youth baseball hasn't started yet. But now youth baseball's cranked
up in Lexington. You go to any of the parks
throughout our city and they're just filled with kids, and
the atmosphere that we have for the kids is awesome.
So for our players a lot of times early the year,
I say all that because we have to sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Create our own energy.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
So now when the fans are there and they're creating
the energy and we can join along, it makes it
that much better. And this weekend was one of those weekends,
So thank you to all the fans.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
In terms of the weather, Sunday, the wind was like
I've never seen at Kentucky Proud Park, gusting thirty forty
miles an hour, and you and I were talking pregame
about it. It was blowing across the foul poles right
to left, and I remember thinking, Man, if they get
the ball in flight today, it's going to travel. But
it actually was the opposite, it wasn't it. The wind
was knocking those fly balls down and making it treacherous
(03:54):
for outfielders.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Especially from left center field all the way over to
right field.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, the fact that Hoddy hit a home.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Run and he it just I would literally I would
have loved to see how far that ball would have
went with no end or the win that we had
maybe Friday. But so our guys did a phenomenal job.
And it started in the very first inning talking about Hudson,
and we talked in the pregame that there was going
to be an infielder that would literally catch a ball
(04:22):
with his shoulders to the leftfield foul pole, which that
sounds weird, right, So Huddy actually caught a pop up
in foul territory with his back to the infield. He
had to angle his body on the same line as
the first base line because that's which way.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
The ball was coming in.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
We talked about in our pregame, and the second he
did that, like the dugout was going crazy, but I
thought everybody. Schwartz made a diving play played to win, right, great,
Jase did it twice even just defensively. While we're on this,
Luke's diving play up the middle. Yes, Sern he made
a great backhand get the lead out at second. OJ
was phenomenal behind the plate. I mean it it's just
(05:00):
Scott Campbell Junior came in and made two great throws
to home. So defensively, the wind definitely presented a challenge
and I thought the guys played it masterfully.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And one more on that because we noticed a couple
of times when pitchers, when they were in their delivery,
the wind would blow their cap off or something on
the mound. When you're out there and it's forty mile
an hour gus, how much does that affect a pitcher,
Maybe in his balance, especially when he's going off that
launch foot trying to get his pitch home.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It makes it even more special what they did.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, because being a right handed pitcher, the wind was
at his back and could have and should have just
blown him off the mound.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
But his routine is phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
If you watch him, he is so meticulous about what
he does pre pitch, during all of his pitches, and
really it takes a tremendous amount of strength. Really when
you think about a forty mile an hour wind. I
was in a third base coaching box getting knocked over
a so yeah, it does affect it. It does actually help.
It can help some of the shapes of the pitches.
When you throw your curveball into the wind, it does
(06:05):
have a chance to knock it down some so that
could play a factor.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
But he did a great job of that.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Going back to Nate Harris, just real quick, how have
you just seen him grow since he I mean he
was a Friday night starter as a freshman and was
successful in the sleep last year. Now sophomore season and
he's pitching on Sundays. How have you seen him continue
to grow? To his ability to move on?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Darren? Nate is a very bright individual.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I mean academically, like I don't need to share his
GPA publicly.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
But he is. It's good, really good, and it's high
right well.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
His ability to process something and then move on has
gotten so much better because a lot of times the
smarter you are, the more analytical and the more you
can think, which sometimes cannot be the best thing in
the world. But his ability is to not overthink things
and to move on and just to settle in and
go on to what's next has been fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Let's suck a little offense now is Kentucky had plenty
of it this weekend against Alabama. Let's start with Hudson Brown.
This young man bunn did a run and then he
drove into with some mammoth home runs this weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
What a skilled hitter. Hudson Brown proved to be.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yes and you know, I told our guys, if you
can lay down a bun and hit a bomb, that
be plus that be equals another b and that means
you're a ballplayer. Hudson Brown, ballplayer A button a bomb
is pretty special. And you know Hindle did that this weekend.
He did the same thing. He laid down a bun
(07:34):
and hit a bomb. But his growth has been phenomenal,
and to think about where he was three years ago
to where he's at now is really just such a
tribute to him and his work ethic and the way
the players respond to him. Darren, I thought he broke
my hand when he gave me five coming around there,
and I was like.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yes, he's a strong guy.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
But yeah, the way that reacts to him too, it's
fun to see. You know, every player has your own
unique relationship with the guys and what they bring to
the table for the team, and the way they rally
behind him. And the ball that he ripped and just
like cut through the wind yesterday was super impressive. I
did not think anyone was getting a ball out to ride.
And I'll never underestimate Hudson Brown again.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Well, coach, we'll get to some fan questions in our
next segment, but I wanted to stay with some of
the individual performances and I wrote down several names of
guys that made clutch pitches, like Ira Austin to get
out of that eighth inning jam. You know, Nile Adcock,
the way you finished the game on Sunday against Alabama.
Luke Lawrence came through with some clutch hits for you
(08:41):
to drive in runs. Ryan Schwartz had a big home run.
So we could go down the list, but overall the
biggest question is how impressed were you with the way
this team executed in the clutch, because that's what you
have to do to win these SEC games, and your
team did it three times.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
You're exactly right.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
And you know, one thing that we talk to the
team about is, hey, we don't want to talk about winning.
We want to focus on doing what it takes to win.
And to your point, there were so many winning plays
and winning moments, and a guy that we hadn't spoken
about yet.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Was Jack Bennett. The job that he's done.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
So when you think about what Ira did on Sunday
and Jack Bennett did on Friday and Saturday and the
outst Turkey, I call him Turkey Berkeley bounds God for us, right,
you just start going up and down, Nile Adcock.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I mean, you just keep going through. Our bullpen went
eight and a third on Saturday, and typically typically that's
hard to win and sweep a series.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
When you have to cover basically an entire game with
your bullpen, that makes it that much more challenging.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And to the guy's credit, they did it.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
You know, Jack Sushi got us a couple, got us
a huge out yesterday and a ground ball. I mean,
so you we just start going up and down and
the job the guys did was phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
That's what it was going to take.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Kentucky will be at Old Miss Thursday through Saturday. It's
a short turnaround this week for a rare Thursday through
Saturday series against the Rebels. Two night games and they'll
finish up Saturday at three o'clock Eastern.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Let's take our first time out.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
We'll chat with coach when we come back and answer
some of your questions here on the Nick Men's You
Own Show. This is the UK Sports Network final segment
of the Nick MinJe oone radio show for this week,
as the Wildcats get set to travel down to Oxford
to take on the Old Miss Rebels, who went down
to Texas and beat the Longhorns, but ultimately dropped that
series in Austin two games to one, best of three,
(10:40):
and so the Wildcats will take on the Rebels this
weekend in Oxford. But Coach, we had some questions from
fans that were sent to us via x and you
can do that on social media. We'll try to get
to as many as we can. But one of them
I thought was a great question from Thomas. He said,
you've done great work in the portal, you and your
staff contributors on the pitching staff, a few position players
(11:03):
making huge contributions, and what are some of the key
metrics you use to evaluate players who have come in
and played such huge roles, especially not just this year,
but the last several years.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Well, that's a great question, and we can literally spend
an entire show on this, so I'll try to be quick,
but give Austin Kus and our recruiting coordinator a lot
of credit. We have access now more than ever with
so much data and so much video. So the second
guy's name goes into portal, we immediately do a statistic.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Search on him.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
If we like what we see and just the traditional
stats e er innings pitched, what role they were used
in walks to strikeouts, all those things. If they all
of a sudden have some stats there that pop up
for us, we put them into one bucket, okay, and
then we go back and then we do a deep
dive on each guy. And the one nice thing that
(11:57):
we can do is we have a ton of video.
So but with all the analytics that we have, we
have the guy's average fastball velocity, his max fastball velocity,
what's the swing and miss on his fastball, what's the
swing and miss on his all speed, what's the shape
of his all speed? How does it move horizontally, how
does it move vertically? So we have all this data, okay,
(12:18):
and it can be overwhelming, excuse me, But what we
need to do is once we find the right metrics
and guys that fit our profile, so we have a
range for each statistical category that we like, and then
as the guys start lighting up in green and all
the things that we deem are important, then the phone
(12:40):
call into reaching out and that process starts. So really
there's an evaluation piece, then the recruiting piece starts and
then positionally, same thing, traditional stats, the home runs, extra
base hits, all that. Well, then what is their batting
average verse ninety miles an hour plus how well do
they hit spin? You know, we have a clutch factor
statistics that we created, so there's so much many things
(13:00):
that go into it, but it's not just your traditional ones.
And then we place a lot of emphasis. I'll close
with this the phone call. Is there a connection? Because
we are looking for guys that we feel like will
fit what we're trying to do. And one of the
first questions I asked is, hey, what do you know
about Kentucky and what do you know about Kentucky baseball?
(13:21):
To see if they've done their homework and then if
there's a match, then we proceed.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
We've had several questions asking about Tyler Bell in his
recovery process. It was great to see him back in
the lineup Sunday and he came through with a couple
of hits at double and a big two run single
to help the Cats build that early five to nothing lead.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, and you know, coming back from an injury like this,
we knew that there would be days where he would
be a little sore, and he was really sore on Friday,
and he came in Saturday fell great, wanted to play.
Told them, hey man, I keep showing them the schedule,
and I keep showing them where the College World Series is,
and I keep reminding them our goals to get to
hear right, And he I thought he's gonna bite my
(14:00):
face off when I told him, hey man, you're not
starting today. If we have a chance for an abat,
I'll let you know. And he was so bad. But
my job, as you know, Darren, is to protect these guys.
And I think as much as Tyler as any player
I've ever coached.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And he was good on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Strength was there and we got him back in there,
and I'm so thankful we did because he obviously got
two hits knocked into scored us one, so he was
responsible for half our runs.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Can you speak to how I mean watching his at
bats and watching how he works in the cages before
the game, it's almost like this professional, mature approach beyond
his years. Can you just talk about what it's like
coaching him and helping his development along. You know, Darren,
he is so smart and the way he processes things
(14:49):
with each at at each pitcher. You know, in a
lot of ways it is on a different level. And
when you're a guy like him, you know, you rely
on other people's information on maybe movement patterns and shapes
of pitches. But in a lot of ways, he gets
pitched totally different than some other guys. So for him,
he's got to figure out his abat.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Because what they're doing to somebody else may not be
doing what they're doing to him. So for him to process, evaluate,
to watch, to understand, to gather information with every pitch,
it's a really high level. And he has an absolute
feel and knacked for finding the barrel and so you know,
for him just to be able to he works his
butt off on all the defense, but just the abats.
(15:33):
I think it's been really good for him, even with
him being out, to be in the abats with each
guy has been really good for him, and I believe
it's helped develop him as a hitter.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, I was going to mention that too.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
One thing that the fans don't really get to see
is how he talks with his teammates and communicates with them,
and he'll watch them in the cages and help them along.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
In addition to the staff.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
He's one of those guys that when he speaks, everybody
else listens.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
And one of the questions that we asked in the
Fall after the Fall was over, hey, who on our
team positionally when they speak, everybody listens. It's a really
good question. Yeah, a new question we asked this year.
Every year, I feel like we're asking our team different
questions to learn. And he was one of the two
(16:17):
guys I got the most votes. When Tyler Bell speaks,
the team listens, and his communication with the guys they
trust him. Yeah, it's definitely a neat combination.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Another question we got was from Nathan and he asked,
what are some things that has been a great surprise
about this team? And then what are some areas that
this team is still working to improve as the season progresses.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Well, I wouldn't say grow, I guess yeah, that's great.
I would say not maybe a surprise, but a thing
that I'm thankful for. And maybe you can call it
a surprise because you just don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
But can your team.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Execute what it needs to do to win a baseball
There's so many things that go into it. You have
to have good starting pitching, Your bullpen has to perform,
you have to make routine plays and you have to
be able to get timely hits.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
So this team's ability to put themselves in baseball games,
and not only to put him in, but then to
be able to execute it a surprise. I don't know
if it's a surprise, but as a coach, you go
in and you think you know what your team is
going to be able to do. But let's be honest, like,
you don't know until those lights turn on, or for us,
until the Empire says playball in a new year. Because we
don't play a lot of light I guess, so you
(17:33):
just don't know. So super thankful that we have a
team that has been able to execute what it takes
to win, and then moving forward, I want to see
us too. You know, there's been times on weekends where
we haven't got through three great starts by all starters.
And by the way, a guy we haven't mentioned yet,
Jackson Jolkin. What a job he did Friday night. I
(17:55):
just feel like we could talk about him every week.
He's like Tyler Bell, right, like he can work his
way in to the show every week. But Joe did
an awesome job and gave us an unbelievable chance to
win and got us a win, but so our ability
to just I want a weekend where all of the
starters click because that helps in so many ways, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So I want to continue to get.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Quality starts out of our starters, whether that's in a
midweek and a carry all the way through through the weekend.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
We got just a couple of minutes left in the show,
but a few listeners have asked about Ben Cleaver. He
had a tough outing Saturday, but coach, I know he's
working hard. You not talked about what a great bullpen
he had during the week can kind of tell us
where he is just trying to get back to being
the Ben Cleaver we.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Know he is.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, And one thing we forget about is he missed
the majority of the fall and you know, pitchers, they
need opportunities on that mound, and we believe that he's
We're going to keep rolling him out there.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
He's too good and our team needs him.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
So he worked on some things mechanically last week didn't
necessarily maybe translate to the game, but they will.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
He's an unbelievable competitor.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
And we'll get him back in that strike zone and
competing and you look at his numbers, you look at
his ra you're like, man, he's just not going deep
into games and we want him to do that, and
I know he wants that too, so he's continuing to
work and make progress.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Coach, it was a great week for your team. As
we wrap up the show here, going down to Oxford
this weekend against Ole Miss I know Kentucky's played well
down there in the past.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Good luck to the Wildcats.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Thank you go Katz And that's head coach Nick Minjeon.
We thank everybody for listening to the Nick Menjeon Show
this week. Join us next Monday night at seven thirty
and don't forget if you miss any of these shows,
you can find them, watch or listen on uksnallaccess dot
com until next Monday. I'm Darren Hedrick for Coach Menjeone.
This is the UK Sports Network
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