In Photos: Kentucky baseball packs bags to Omaha with final sendoff party ahead of 2024 College World Series

Nick Mingione has taken Kentucky to its first-ever College World Series in program history. This was a moment to celebrate, and the Wildcats did so alongside their fans on Wednesday as they boarded their bus to Omaha, Nebraska, to chase the ultimate glory of a national championship.

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The pictures show a happy roster and head coach at Kentucky Proud Park, sharing what might be called a "mid-western goodbye" with their supporters. If anyone knows how much this means, it's head coach Nick Mingione, who told ESPNU after their second win over Oregon State:

“Since the day I was hired. When Mitch Barnhart gave me this opportunity, and an opportunity of a lifetime. He took a chance on me. Never been a head coach at any level. Never been a tee ball head coach, little league head coach, high school coach.

"I’ve never been a head coach in my entire life and Mitch Barnhart tells me, ‘I want you to be the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats.’ You can’t make this up. Only God could write this story. … My heart is filled with sincere gratitude.”

Now Mingione and his Wildcats are Omaha-bound, looking to write more pages of Kentucky's baseball history.

Nick Mingione on the need to keep focused as Kentucky heads to Omaha

For Mingione, into his seventh season as head coach at Kentucky, standards are important and faltering is not an option. During one of his team's few dips in concentration in March, he called in a meeting after they were almost swept in a three-game series against Kennesaw State. He recalled the incident:

"I told my team that I will not coach a team that does that. We are not playing scared and not playing just to hang on to win.

"We are going to attack and I got after them as good as I could get after a team that Sunday after a win, and told them, ‘Hey we were not going to do that and if you don’t change it, you are going to get a side of coaching from me that you won’t like.’ And they had a practice Monday and they were so much better."

Now they're set to face NC State in their first game of the College World Series. The game takes place on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. ET and will air on ESPN. Can they bring the same energy to Omaha and make more history?