Jaxon Jelkin led Kentucky in wins, strikeouts and innings pitched and Kentucky coach Nick Mingione thinks he will be a star in the major leagues | Laker Country 104.9 FM WJRS

Kentucky might not have had the baseball season it was expecting but senior right-handed pitcher Jaxon Jelkin and sophomore infielder Tyler Bell both had outstanding seasons for coach Nick Mingione.

Jelkin was the staff ace. He worked  88 1/3 innings with a 3.77 earned run average. He made 15 appearances with 14 starts — and his one relief outing was a two-inning stint to save a win over Arkansas in the regular season’s final series. He struck out 98 and walked only 20 while compiling an 8-3 mark. He led the Kentucky staff in innings pitched, strikeouts and wins.

Bell missed 15 games after injuring his shoulder in UK’s opening game but still hit a team-high 352 with seven home runs and 27 RBI’s. He also had a .970 fielding percentage.

Bell was a first-team all-Southeastern Conference selection and Jelkin was named to the second team. Mingione called them both “superstars” after UK’s loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament.

“Tyler, think about the list of first-team all-SEC shortstops in this league. The guy is a superstar. Best high school player I’ve ever coached. I’ve never coached a second-rounder (draft pick). Like, second-rounders don’t literally just show up at school,” the Kentucky coach said.

“And Jaxon, there’s not a team in that tournament that’s, like, ‘Yes, I can’t wait to face Jaxon Jelkin.’ And I give my man Aaron Fitt (managing editor for D! Baseball) credit. He saw him this fall and was all in on him. He got hit around in the one fall game. Aaron still threw all his chips in and was, like, this is what it’s supposed to look like. And he was right.

“Ton of trust. In non-conference games he went 4-0 in the games he pitched. He gave up five runs in four games against non-conference opponents. Let that sink in. He’s just a superstar.”

Mingione thinks the best is yet to come for both players.

“These two guys will play in the big leagues. I’m confident of that. I’ll show up in that locker room — the SEC does so awesome. They have all the former players. I walked around after being in this league for 20 years, and just going through some of the great players, like, some of the best players in the world,” Mingione said.

“I’m confident that these two guys will be some of the best players in the world when they get to the Major Leagues.”