Kentucky baseball officially has a new hitting coach.
The school announced the hiring of Chase Slone as the Wildcats’ hitting coach and assistant coach Sunday. Slone comes to Lexington from Wright State. He’ll take over hitting coach duties from Nick Ammirati, who left for a position on Georgia’s staff earlier this month.
“Chase is a perfect fit for Kentucky Baseball,” Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said in a news release Sunday. “He’s extremely intelligent, innovative and has played a pivotal role in one of the nation’s most effective and opportunistic offensive attacks. We are thrilled to welcome him to the UK baseball family and the Big Blue Nation.”
The 28-year-old Slone was a player at Wright State from 2018-19 before returning to the school as a member of the coaching staff. He started as a volunteer assistant in 2020 before working his way up to Associate Head Coach entering the 2024 season.
As a team, the Raiders finished 10th among Division I teams in scoring a season ago (nine runs per game) and eighth in home runs and slugging percentage per game. Wright State went 32-24 overall in 2024, winning the Horizon League regular season championship. They were eliminated in their conference tournament by Youngstown State and did not reach the NCAA Tournament.
Kentucky’s offense was 33rd in the nation last year in runs scored. The Wildcats earned their first trip to the College World Series in school history, finishing 46-16 overall.
Kentucky finished No. 3 in the final USA TODAY Sports baseball coaches poll.
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