Kentucky Baseball Coach Nick Mingione ‘Surrendered’ to God Ahead of Historic Win
By Movieguide® Contributor
Nick Mingione and the entire Kentucky baseball program have punched their ticket to the College Baseball World Series.
Despite their success this year, it came after major changes and lessons Mingione learned from the Lord.
“And I was a beat-down coach. I was a beat-down coach, and God taught me a valuable lesson,” he said in a post-game press conference. “I did something that I’ve only done two other times in my life, and I surrendered. I just said, ‘Lord, I’m done. I’m done. I cannot do this on my own anymore.'”
“I was just trying to do it all by myself. And the Lord put it on my heart that I was not using my spiritual gifts that He’s given me, and we had to make changes,” Mingione continued. “I had to make changes. One major change we made was we brought Nick Amarati from coaching third base to the dugout to be with the players, and it put me at third base. I started coaching third base. On May 15, 2022, I started coaching third base. You can’t make this up. I surrendered. I said, ‘Lord. I can’t do it.'”
Mingione then bragged about his son, Reeves.
“Reeves knows a Bible verse for every letter in the alphabet. I’m a proud father of that,” he said.
He then asked his son what his “J Bible verse” is.
Reeves responded with Matthew 19:26: “Jesus looked at them intently and said, ‘Humanly speaking it isn’t possible, but with God, anything is possible.”
“God taught me a lesson,” Mingione said before adding, “It’s not what you’re playing for, it’s who you’re playing for. I got done chasing this dream of Omaha, and I just said, ‘I’m done. I’m not chasing that anymore, Lord. I want to play for You.’ It’s not what you’re playing for, it’s who you’re playing for, and that’s what God taught me.”
After Kentucky beat Oregon State to “earn the first trip to the Men’s College World Series in program history,” Mingione expressed his gratitude.
“All I can think of is to God be the glory,” he said. “Only he could make something like this happen, so that’s all I can think about — how thankful I am. God gets all the glory. Only he can write this story.”
Per the Louisville Courier-Journal, “This season Mingione has led Kentucky to its best season during his tenure with a 45-14 record and earning the No. 2 national seed in the NCAA baseball tournament. The Wildcats have appeared in the super-regional each of the last two seasons and three of the last seven.”
The team will play its first-even national championship game this weekend in Omaha, Nebraska.