A Dream Come True: It’s CHS at the CWS

By Ryan Clark
CHS Communications Director

OMAHA, Neb. — When senior infielder Mitch Daly smacked a two-out, walk-off home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the 10th inning Saturday night to clinch Kentucky baseball’s first-ever win in their first-ever appearance in the College World Series, one could argue that no one had a better view than Richie Wells.

Wells, who hails from the Bronx, NY, is the Head Athletic Trainer for UK baseball, as well as an alumnus of the College of Health Sciences. He earned a graduate certificate in Musculoskeletal Injury Management from the Athletic Training program in 2022 and became baseball’s Head Athletic Trainer that same year. He’s now spent a total of four seasons with the team, and has watched these Bat Cats get better and better each year.

Now, he says seeing their success makes his job even more rewarding.

“It’s great to see the guys — and even some of the staff — get to do something they’ve dreamed of,” he said. “(The players) work hard, man. They’ve been through a lot of adversity, individually. To see them come (to UK) and take a chance on this place and have success as a group, it’s fun to watch — and gratifying to see all the things you fight for pay off.”

Wells is one of a few who have ties to the College of Health Sciences who made the trip to Omaha to support the team — part of an impressive crowd of thousands of blue-clad staff and fans who have traveled here to celebrate UK baseball’s first CWS appearance.

Like Kaley Evans, for example — she’s here, and she always wanted to be part of a big-time sports culture. Back when she was deciding where to go for graduate school, she had a few factors she was considering. As a kinesiology major at California State University, Fullerton, she wanted space, freedom — and athletics.

“I wanted to be in a health care field that allowed me to move outside of a clinic or hospital,” she told her professors in 2020. “I also wanted to be a part of a program that has a massive emphasis on sports culture.”

So she decided on the Professional Masters in Athletic Training program at the University of Kentucky, and she graduated in 2022.

Now, as an athletic trainer for the baseball team, she also finds herself at the College World Series.

But then again, maybe the best view of Daly’s already legendary game-winning home run belonged to Myles Logsdon, a Media Arts and Studies major in the Class of 2026 from Owensboro.

Logsdon is a student video producer for Kentucky Sports Video (you can find some of his work if you follow UK Baseball on Instagram). But for the past two years, Logsdon has also worked as student video producer in the College of Health Sciences. Being in the right place at the right time just happens to be his specialty. And he says he’s also seen this UK Baseball team grow over the last two years. No event, he said, was more meaningful than the loss to eventual national champion LSU in last year’s Super Regionals.

“To be here (in Omaha) with this team is a real-life dream come true,” he said. “Being with these guys last year when we lost down at LSU was heartbreaking, but I also got to see them flip the switch. This team wants to win more than any team I’ve ever worked with — and it feels like a true family more than any other team I have been with.”

Kentucky will next face Texas A&M in the College World Series on Monday. The game from Charles Schwab Field Omaha is set to begin at 7 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN. The UK Sports Network will also have a radio broadcast on 630 WLAP in Lexington, as well as on ukathletics.com.