TicketsApril 14, 2009
THE MATCH-UP
Cincinnati hosts the inaugural Joe Nuxhall Classic April 14-15 at Marge Schott Stadium. The event will honor the legacy of Joe Nuxhall, while promoting amateur baseball in Southwest Ohio. Participating in the tournament alongside UC is Miami University, Xavier University, and Wright State University. Miami (OH) and Wright State kick off the tournament on Tuesday, April 14, at 3 p.m., before the Bearcats and Musketeers play the nightcap at 7 p.m. Prior to the game between UC and Xavier, there will be a ceremony honoring Joe Nuxhall.
SCOUTING XAVIER
· The Musketeers enter the week with a 16-13 overall record and a 6-6 Atlantic-10 mark.
· Even though he will earn the start on the hill on Wednesday, Ben Thomas has been the top hitter for Xavier this season, owning a .354 average.
· Thomas owns a team-best 26 RBI, while being tied for the team lead in home runs with four.
· As a team, Xavier is hitting .291 and the Musketeers are 56-of-67 in stolen bases this season with three players possessing 10-plus stolen bases.
· On the hill, the Musketeers own a team ERA of 5.14 with opponents hitting .289.
SCOUTING MIAMI (OH)
· The RedHawks are coming off a weekend where they took two of three games from Central Michigan to improve to 16-14 overall and 7-5 in Mid-American Conference action.
· Miami head coach Dan Simonds is one win away from his 100th win at Miami.
· Zak Hatfield leads all the power categories for the RedHawks with 10 home runs and 37 RBI.
· Chris Nadeau owns the team's best batting average, hitting .387, while Adam Eaton is the catalyst to the offense scoring 34 runs.
· Miami has three arms out of the bullpen that own ERA's below 2.00, and as a team the RedHawks own a ERA of 4.77.
SCOUTING WRIGHT STATE
· Wright State comes to the Joe Nuxhall Classic with a 15-19 overall mark and a 4-5 record in the Horizon League.
· Earlier this season, Wright State defeated the then-No. 1 team in the country, Georgia, 8-5 in Athens, Ga.
· Jeff Mercer owns a team-best .359 average and 38 RBI.
· As a staff, the Raider hurlers have a team ERA of 5.59.
JOE NUXHALL CLASSIC
· On April 14-15, the UC baseball team will host the inaugural Joe Nuxhall Classic at Marge Schott Stadium.
· The event is set to honor the legacy of Joe Nuxhall and promote amateur baseball in southwest Ohio.
· The Bearcats welcome Miami University, Wright State University, and Xavier University to compete in this year's tournament.
· Cincinnati, Miami (OH), and Xavier will always participate in the tournament and the fourth team will be decided each season.
· The tournament also will alternate between Marge Schott Stadium and McKie Field at Hayden Park on the Miami University campus.
· On April 14, Miami takes on Wright State at 3 p.m. with the Bearcats and Musketeers meeting in the nightcap at 7 p.m.
· The following day, the winners and losers from the previous day will play each other, with the Bearcats playing the night game.
PRIME TIME EXPOSURE
· For the first time in program history, the UC baseball team hosted a nationally-televised contest on Sunday, April 5.
· In front of a season-best 1,984 fans, Cincinnati defeated Louisville 10-9 on ESPNU.
· Sophomore Nick Rohlfs went 3-for-4 from the plate and drove in a career-high five runs, including the game-winning RBI's in the seventh inning.
· Senior Jake Geglein pitched the final five innings of the game, earning his second win of the season. In five innings, Geglein gave up just one earned run.
LUCK OF THE IRISH
· For the first time this season, the Bearcats won a conference series taking two of three games from Notre Dame.
· In the series, the Bearcats top three hitters were its 2-3-and-4 hitters, Cameron Satterwhite, Mike Spina, and Lance Durham.
· Durham led the team with a .545 average in the series, while Spina and Satterwhite hit .385 and .308, respectively.
· The trio combined to hit all six doubles for the Bearcats in the three-game set and scored seven of the team's 14 runs.
· On the mound, the UC pitching staff had its best weekend in BIG EAST action, combining for a 4.33 ERA.
· Michael Hill went 6.0 innings in the opener of a doubleheader on Saturday, April 11, and struck out five en route to his first win of the season.
SETTING THE PACE
· Lance Durham, the son of former MLB player Leon Durham, is in his first season with the Red and Black and has not wasted any time making an impact.
· Durham leads the team with a .438 batting average, 53 hits, and an on-base percentage of .521.
· Against Bradley on March 6, Durham hit his first career home run, which cleared the scoreboard beyond the right field fence and bounced off of Fifth Third Arena.
· In 31 games, Durham leads the team with 21 multi-hit games and he has reached base safely in 29 games.
· Durham ranks second on the squad with 30 RBI and has hit four home runs.
· On March 31 vs. Wright State, Durham went 3-for-5 from the plate, including a three-run home run, and drove in a career-high five runs.
ROOKIE SPOTLIGHT
· Freshman T.J. Jones has been one of the catalysts at the bottom of the order for UC in recent games.
· Over UC's last 16 games, Jones is second on the team in batting average (.326), trailing only Lance Durham.
· In conference action, Jones is hitting .313 with two triples, a home run, and 6 RBI. Jones' .313 conference average is tops on the Bearcat squad.
· Jones is tied for third in BIG EAST-only games with two triples.
· On Saturday, April 4, Jones hit his first home run as a Bearcat against Louisville and finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and a RBI.
· Jones collected his second multi-RBI game against Notre Dame on Sat., April 11, with two RBI in UC's 7-3 win over the Irish.
DOUBLE UP
· Senior Cameron Satterwhite has begun to get out of his slump at the plate with two strong conference series' the last two weekends against Louisville and Notre Dame.
· Satterwhite has hit .333 (9-of-27), and five of his nine hits have been doubles in the last two series.
· The Cincinnati, Ohio, native has accumulated 45 doubles in his career and with two doubles against Notre Dame last weekend, Satterwhite moved into eighth place on UC's all-time doubles list.
· Currently, Chris Hamblen (1999-02), sits in seventh place on UC's all-time doubles list with 47 doubles.
GEGLEIN CLOSING IN
· With a four-out save at Rutgers on March 27, Jake Geglein moved into a tie for first place on UC's all-time saves list with 15.
· Geglein is tied atop UC's all-time saves list with Curtis Moak (1998-01), who was a 25th-round selection by the Cincinnati Reds in 2001.
· Geglein has four saves this season, which was tied for third in the BIG EAST entering the week.
· Geglein ranked second in the BIG EAST with nine saves in 2008.
· On Sunday, April 5, Geglein pitched a career-high five innings of relief to earn the win against Louisville. In his five innings of work, Geglein scattered four hits, struck out two, and gave up just one run.
ONE-TWO PUNCH
· Mike Spina and Lance Durham have provided UC with clutch performances this season in the middle of the lineup.
· The duo has combined for 34 multi-hit games and 17 multi-RBI games, including seven four-plus RBI games.
· With runners in scoring position, Spina and Durham have combined to hit .427.
· So far this season, Spina has hit 11 home runs and driven in 41 runs, while Durham has added four home runs and 30 RBI.
· Durham's and Spina's 15 combined home runs account for 45.5 percent of the team's home runs, while their 71 RBI's account for 37.3 percent of the team's RBI's.
OFF AND RUNNING
· Cincinnati has scored 10-plus runs in 11 of 31 games this season.
· Last season, it took UC 47 games to score 10-plus runs 11 times.
· UC has scored 213 runs this season in 31 games, averaging out to 6.87 runs per game.
· This season, UC is 9-2 when scoring 10-plus runs.
POWER SURGE
· In UC's 9-5 win over Pittsburgh on March 22, the Bearcats hit four home runs.
· It was the second time this season that UC has hit four home runs in a game, with the other occurance coming against Purdue in the season opener on Feb. 20.
· Cincinnati has hit 33 home runs this season and UC has hit two-plus home runs in 12 of its 31 games.
· The Red and Black are 8-4 on the season when hitting two-plus home runs.
TOUCH 'EM ALL
· In his first season in the Red and Black in 2008, Mike Spina hit a UC single-season record 21 home runs and drove in a UC single-season record tying 79 RBI.
· Through 31 games this season, 11 of Spina's 43 hits have been home runs.
· Spina is averaging one home run for every 11.2 at-bats.
· In the first game vs. Purdue on Feb. 20, Spina hit two home runs to continue where he left off last season and finished the weekend with two home runs and six RBI.
· In the only game played at Davidson on Feb. 27, Spina hit a grand slam in the fifth inning to put UC on top, 9-5, his third home run of the season.
· A first-inning, two-run home run against Miami (OH) on March 4 gave Spina his fourth home run of the season and the 25th of his career.
· In the series finale against Bradley, Spina went 2-for-4 with two home runs and six RBI, as one of his home runs was a grand slam -- his second of the season.
· In his first two at bats in game two of a doubleheader against Western Michigan on March 14, Spina hit two home runs, one of which was a grand slam, upping his home run total to nine. It was Spina's third grand slam this season.
· Heading into the week, Spina leads the BIG EAST with 11 home runs, and ranks fourth in RBI (41).
· Only 88 games into his UC career, Spina ranks sixth on the UC career home runs chart with 32.
SOPHOMORE SURGE
· In his rookie campaign at UC last season, Justin Riddell played in 40 games and made 35 starts for the Bearcats. In those 40 games, Riddell collected two home runs, 15 RBI, and owned a slugging percentage of .360.
· At the BIG EAST/Big Ten Baseball Challenge Feb. 20-22, Riddell was a tough out as he batted .615, going 8-for-13 from the plate.
· In the season-opener vs. Purdue, Riddell went 4-for-4 from the plate and equalled his home run total from 2008 with two home runs in the contest.
· Against Ohio State on Sunday, Feb. 22, Riddell hit his third home run of the season, surpassing his total from 2008.
· At the BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge, Riddell led the tournament in home runs (3), total bases (19), and slugging percentage (1.462), while tying for the tournament lead in batting average (.615).
· Riddell also ranked second among all players in on-base percentage (.643) and hits (8).
· For his efforts, Riddell was named to the BIG EAST/Big Ten Baseball Challenge All-Tournament team presented by CollegeBaseball360.com, and was also one of 12 players nationally selected as Players of the Week by RecruitingCloser.com.
· In the eighth inning vs. Dayton on March 10, Riddell opened up a 7-6 lead in the eighth inning with a three-run home run to give UC a 10-6 lead.
· Of his 35 hits this season, 12 have gone for extra bases. Riddell has seven doubles, one triple, and four home runs. He also ranks third on the team with a .313 batting average.
OFF THE BENCH
· In 25 pinch-hit at-bats this season, the Bearcats have delivered 12 hits.
· Freshman Cory Hough is 3-for-6 in pinch-hitting opportunities, while freshman Dorian West, redshirt freshman Zach Collaros, sophomore Justin Riddell, and junior Beach Brooks have all collected hits in pinch-hitting roles.
· In the seventh inning against Miami (OH) on March 4, Hough and Brooks strung together back-to-back two-out pinch-hit base hits to keep the inning alive. Later in the inning, both scored on passed balls to tie the game at eight.
· Freshman T.J. Jones broke open a 4-4 game on March 22 against Pittsburgh with a pinch-hit triple. Jones is 2-for-3 in pinch-hitting roles.
· Trailing 1-0 in the series opener against Rutgers on March 27, Kendal Coleman tied the game with a clutch one-out, pinch-hit single that kickstarted a six-run inning leading to Bearcat victory.