Kentucky Wildcats baseball manager Nick Mingione was named the Perfect Game National Coach of the Year on Wednesday.
This marks the second time in eight seasons that Mingione has earned the honor.
Mingione guided a Kentucky squad voted near the bottom of the SEC Eastern Division to a conference championship, just the second in school history, and its first NCAA College World Series berth in its history, a span of more than 100 seasons.
Nick Lopez and Ryan Waldschmidt also received national praise.
Waldschmidt was named a Perfect Game third team All-American.
Lopez was named second-Team All-America by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association on Wednesday.
Kentucky baseball will open College World Series play against NC State on Saturday at 2:00pm eastern.
Saturday will mark the first College World Series game in Kentucky’s program history.