1st games of CWS scheduled
NCAA sets weekend lineup
The NCAA has announced the schedule for the first two days of the College World Series.
Oklahoma State (41-20) plays UC Santa Barbara (42-18-1) on Saturday afternoon, and No. 3 national seed Miami (50-12) faces Arizona (44-21) at night.
Sunday’s matchups have No. 5 Texas Tech (47-18) facing TCU (4716) in the afternoon and Coastal Carolina (49-16) playing at night against No. 1 Florida, which defeated Florida State 7-0 in a super regional Monday night.
CWS teams are split into two brackets. Bracket winners meet in the bestof-three finals starting June 27.
DEVELOPMENTS
Kentucky hires MSU
assistant: Kentucky has hired former Mississippi State assistant Nick Mingione to replace Gary Henderson as the Wildcats’ baseball coach.
It’s the first head coaching job for Mingione, who worked with the Bulldogs under John Cohen for the past eight seasons and was his assistant at Kentucky in 2006-07.
“We are grateful for what he has helped us accomplish at Mississippi State, including a national runner-up finish at the 2013 College World Series and the 2016 Southeastern Conference championship,” Cohen said in a statement. “I’ve always thought he would make a terrific head coach.”
Mingione’s time in Starkville also included a 2012 SEC Tournament title.
He also has been an assistant at Western Carolina; Embry-Riddle University, his alma mater; and Florida Gulf Coast.
Henderson stepped down on June 1 after eight seasons at Kentucky.
Mingione said Monday in a news release that he has dreamed about the opportunity for more than a decade and called it “an incredible feeling” to return.
All-America honor: Mississippi State’s Jake Mangum was named a first-team freshman AllAmerican by the National College Baseball Writer’s Association.
Mangum, the Southeastern Conference’s regular-season batting champion, finished the season leading the Bulldogs with a .408 batting average to go with a .458 on-base percentage.
The Pearl, Mississippi, native set the table for Mississippi State’s offense, which averaged .308 as a team and scored more than six runs per game.