Nick Mingione breaks down UK's scrimmage against West Virginia

Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione, now in his 10th season with the program, discussed Sunday's scrimmage against West Virginia with Bat Cats Central. The Wildcats rallied from an 8-1 deficit in the first seven-inning game and then outscored the Mountaineers 17-2 in the second seven-inning scrimmage.

On what he learned about his team: "I learned a lot about our team. First, the fight. Down 8-1 and just didn't stop competing the whole time. I was super happy for Jaxon Jelkin. I think he said it had been over 16 months since he had faced another team. Any time you have to overcome an injury and make it back, for you to make it back is a success in itself. He's super special, super talented and it was good to see him get back out there. That's another hurdle for him. Sure, he gave up some runs, but he threw a ball 99 miles per hour, a personal high. Just so excited to see him back.

"I thought Nile Adcock really settled the game and gave our offense a chance to come back. I thought he settled it, didn't let it get out of control, and Ira (Austin) was also unbelievable. The attack, you could just see the experience there. And then staying on the pitching for the day, I thought Leighton Harris showed tremendous poise. Just his presence was so much better. Cam Owens, to get out there for the first time, was awesome to see. Got him a chance to come in in the middle of the inning and then for him to get out of the next inning was awesome to see. What can you say about Tristan Hunter and Tommy Skelding? They looked the part. They threw strikes, multiple pitches, it was a very high level of pitching. Overall, those were some guys who threw the ball exceptionally well.

"I thought defensively we were fine. We left some plays on the field. I think we can clean some of those up. I loved our catchers behind the plate. I thought they received the ball great. They back-picked and made good, strong throws to second base. I thought they did extremely well for two guys (Tagger Tyson and Owen Jenkins) who had never been in our program and were catching new arms for the first time, super pleased with them.

"Offensively, I thought it took us too long to make adjustments in the first game. We obviously made some adjustments and were able to win that game with our strike zone discipline and our ability to put balls in play with two strikes. That in itself wins us the game. I thought the second game, we were in complete control. Obviously, putting up runs in multiple innings, but we used the entire field. Our ability to use the entire field in the second game was crucial. You mix that in with some really good baserunning, great hitting and you get the result you get."

On if it's trickier to make adjustments in a fall setting against different pitchers almost every inning: "That does make it hard, especially this early. We don't have information on everybody, so therefore, you have to have a heightened awareness of that. You have to learn the guy's stuff immediately. You have to learn the umpire's zone immediately. You just got to make adjustments really fast and you have to be keen on that. I'm talking about whether it's a box adjustment, a timing adjustment, what are we doing with less than two strikes? What are we doing with two strikes? All those things, but it has to happen immediately. It took us too long, but to our guys' credit, we did it."

On having players like Tyler Bell and Luke Lawrence who hit leadoff last year, but choosing Jayce Tharnish to hit leadoff during this scrimmage: "His bat-to-ball skills are incredible. Whether it's facing a lefthanded pitcher, righthanded pitcher, his ability to steal bases is elite level. Luke Lawrence, as you know, batted leadoff. We were like 'could you imagine Luke Lawrence in the bottom of our lineup? He would turn that thing all over.' Luke's presence is crucial for us. He had good at-bats.

"What the lineup will be, I don't know. But Jayce's bat-to-ball skills and his base stealing has been elite so far."

On what he's been most pleased with this fall regarding sophomore outfielder Ryan Schwartz: "He's a baseball player. I just say, 'Schwartz, it doesn't matter where we put you. You excel.' He's getting ready to throw an inning for us. He's thrown a bullpen. He's going to throw on the mound. He can play first base. He can play left field, right field. I've never seen him in center field, but I bet if we put him out there, he could do it. I bet if we said, 'Hey Schwartz, we need you to play third.' He could do it. The only place I probably wouldn't play him is the middle infield. Other than that, I think he can play every position on the field. Center field might be stretching here because I haven't seen it, but I wouldn't put it past him. This whole fall, so far, he's had great at-bats and his energy, the guys love him and his presence. He competes as well as anybody we have in the box. He's been a joy to be around."

On the experience of playing a fall game against West Virginia, which was picked in the top-15 in a way-too-early preseason top 25, and what it, can do for the team the rest of fall practice: "We wanted to play them because they're good. That's why we picked them. We wanted to be tested. This team needs to be challenged. I mentioned to a couple of people that I was hoping we'd get punched today because I wanted to see how we'd respond. In the fall, it's sometimes hard to recreate that. I was super pleased because we got punched and it took us a minute, but we started punching back. And we just kept punching. I have a lot of respect for (West Virginia head coach) Steve Sabins, the job that he's done. He's a fellow Embry-Riddle Eagle. We needed to be tested."

On what the main focus will be over the next three weeks before the final fall scrimmage: "We have to continue to stress to our pitching staff the importance of strike one, leadoff batter, winning 1-1 counts, getting ahead, being able to land multiple pitches for a strike, we have to be able to make routine plays defensively. For us to be what we want to be, we have to dominate routine plays and turn double plays in the infield. And then offensively, we have to be able to make adjustments. We have to be able to get on time for fastballs and need to battle our butts off with two strikes. We need to continue to challenge this team. They need to be challenged. They're super competitive guys and when they're challenged and they nail little details, then I'll know we had a good fall."