Kentucky baseball clinches SEC championship with blowout of Vanderbilt

For the second time in program history and first time since 2006, Kentucky baseball is the SEC champion.

The Wildcats clinched at least a share of the conference title Friday with a 17-7 win against Vanderbilt. UK retains a one-game lead over Tennessee with one game to play in the regular season.

A victory for UK over Vanderbilt on Saturday would clinch the outright conference title regardless of the Tennessee outcome against South Carolina. If Kentucky loses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee defeats South Carolina on Saturday, the teams would share the regular season title but Tennessee would earn the No. 1 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament thanks to its regular-season series victory against Kentucky.

With an SEC championship officially in hand, Kentucky remains in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Regardless of what happens on Saturday or in the SEC Tournament, the Wildcats appear to have clinched a top-eight seed in the tournament, meaning they would host a super regional if Nick Mingione’s team advances through the NCAA Tournament regional to be played at Kentucky Proud Park.

The SEC title backs up confidence from UK players and coaches since fall practice despite outside pundits approaching the team with skepticism prior to the season.

SEC coaches picked UK to finish fifth in the East division in the league’s preseason poll. None of the major preseason polls included Kentucky in the top 25 despite the team coming off a super regional appearance.

“Out of respect for those that are trying to pick the teams and trying to really just project what was going to happen, we are a program where we have a lot of new faces,” Mingione, who was an assistant coach on UK’s 2006 SEC champion team, said earlier this week. “Sometimes it’s hard to kind of go all-in on a team when you have so many new faces. Do we have a core group of guys that were back from the super regional team a year ago? Yes, we did, but there were still some holes and question marks. Hey, what would the rotation officially look like? What would the bullpen look like? Who was going to fill the other two infield spots? Who was going to do the outfield? Who was going to fill in there?

“… I think one thing maybe people didn’t realize is just how competitive the guys are. We just have a group of just uber competitive individuals.”

The season began with questions about where Kentucky could reach the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time in the current tournament format. Now, the regular season ends with Kentucky one of the favorites to reach the College World Series.

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