TicketsMay 19, 2010
CINCINNATI - The University of Cincinnati baseball team concludes its regular season when it welcomes Georgetown University to Marge Schott Stadium for a three-game BIG EAST Conference series beginning on Thursday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m. Friday's and Saturday's games will be contested at 6:30 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively. Cincinnati enters the week tied for seventh in the BIG EAST standings and is one of four teams battling for the two remaining spots in the 2010 BIG EAST Championships that will be played May 26-30 at Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater, Fla., the spring training home of the Philadelphia Phillies. Saturday's game will be Senior Day as seven UC seniors will play their final home game at Marge Schott Stadium.
ABOUT GEORGETOWN
· Georgetown enters the week with a 24-28 record following a mid-week victory over George Mason.
· The Hoyas own a 5-19 BIG EAST Conference record.
· As a team, GU is hitting .286 and they are led by Rand Ravnaas, who is hitting .341 while also leading the team with 11 home runs.
· The Hoyas have three other players that have played 40-plus games that are hitting above .300, including Dan Capeless (.324), Tommy Lee (.319), and Erick Fernandez (.314).
· As a staff, Georgetown has a collective ERA of 5.51, led by Neal Dennison's 3.40 ERA in 22 appearances.
THE MATCH-UP
· Georgetown and Cincinnati rank in the bottom four in the conference in hitting and rank first and second in strikeouts.
· Cincinnati's pitching staff has the third-best ERA in both overall games (4.21) and conference-only games (4.06), while Georgetown's staff has an ERA of 5.83 in league play.
· The Hoyas rank fourth in the league in stolen bases with 72 and they will go against senior Jimmy Jacquot, who has thrown out a league-best 25 runners attempting a stolen base. GU's Erick Fernandez ranks second in throwing runners out with 22.
· Defensively, the Bearcats and the Hoyas rank 11th and 12th, respectively, in conference-only play in fielding percentage.
AROUND THE BIG EAST
· With one weekend to play, six of the eight teams have booked their travel plans to Clearwater, Fla., for the 2010 BIG EAST Tournament, which will be played at Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater, Fla., May 26-30.
· While no seed has been determined, No. 18 UConn, No. 11 Louisville, Pittsburgh, St. John's, USF, and Rutgers have all secured a spot in the tournament.
· Cincinnati and Notre Dame are tied for seventh place in the league standings at 10-14, two games in front of Villanova and West Virginia. Seton Hall is three games back at 7-17.
· UC takes on Georgetown, who has been eliminated from the BIG EAST Championships, while Notre Dame welcomes No. 11 Louisville to South Bend, Ind. West Virginia and Villanova play each other in Morgantown, W. Va. Seton Hall plays at No. 18 UConn.
WEEKEND PROMOTIONS
· This weekend's series against Georgetown marks the final weekend of the 2010 regular season.
· On Friday, May 21, UC will host Armed Forces Night and ESPN 1530 Night at the Ballpark.
· Prior to the start of Friday's game, UC's Army and Air Force ROTC will hold their initiation on the field.
· ESPN 1530 sports personality Mo Egger will be throwing out the first pitch and tickets will be $1 for fans who tell a Box Office representative that they are in attendance for ESPN 1530 Night at the Ballpark.
· In addition, $1 hot dogs will be sold at the concession stand.
· Saturday's game will be Senior Day as seven UC seniors will play their final game at Marge Schott Stadium.
· The seven seniors are Beach Brooks, Andrew Burkett, Brian Garman, Jimmy Jacquot, Kevin Johnson, Jamel Scott, and Tyler Smith. There will be a ceremony prior to the final weekend game honoring the seniors.
STRENGE RISES TO THE OCCASSION
· On Sunday, May 9, freshman Andrew Strenge earned his first start of his career and pitched a gem leading UC to a 3-2 win over the No. 20 Connecticut Huskies.
· Strenge yielded seven hits and gave up two unearned runs, while striking out six batters en route to a complete game.
· With the complete game, Strenge became the first UC freshman to toss a complete game since Dan Osterbrock tossed a complete game at Villanova on May 6, 2006.
· In the second start of his career against No. 22 Pittsburgh on May 16, Strenge continued to impress by holding the top hitting team in the country to one run in 8.0 innings of work to pick up his sixth win of the season.
· Against the nationally-ranked Panthers, Strenge struck out a career-high nine batters without yielding a walk.
· For his efforts against the Panthers, Strenge was named the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week, marking UC's first conference weekly award winner of the season and UC's first Pitcher of the Week honor since Michael Hill won the award in May of 2008.
· For his efforts the past two weeks, he has been named to the CollegeBaseball360.com Primetime Performer of the Week honor roll.
· Strenge has now pitched 22.2 consecutive innings without giving up an earned run, which is the third longest active streak in the country and the sixth longest streak of the season.
· Below is the active list of most consecutive innings without giving up an earned run (** denotes active streak).
Name.... Cl. L/R... School.. IP
1. Tim Boyce Sr.......... RHP Rhode Island 25.0
2. Trever Vermeulen...... Jr. RHP South Dakota State 24.2
3. Andrew Strenge ......... Fr. RHP Cincinnati 22.2
IP = Innings pitched w/out allowing an earned run
BURKETT SETS NEW RECORD
· The Cincinnati bullpen has been one of the team's strengths for most of the season and part of the reason for its success has been due to its anchor, senior Andrew Burkett.
· On Sunday, May 16, against No. 22 Pittsburgh, Burkett entered the game in the ninth inning and closed out the 3-1 win over the nationally-ranked Panthers, his 13th save of the season.
· Burkett passed Shannon Morgan's 1995 single-season school record of 12 saves, becoming UC's all-time single-season saves leader.
· Burkett's 13 saves and eight saves in conference lead the BIG EAST and his 13 saves also place him in a tie for first nationally in that category.
· Burkett has struck out 27 in 19.1 innings en route to a 3.26 ERA.
· Burkett is also in sole possession of third on UC's career saves list with 14.
RIDDELL CONTINUES HOT STREAK
· Prior to the opening game of the Notre Dame series on April 23, junior Justin Riddell was hitting .235 (19-of-81) in 30 games.
· Over the past 20 games, however, Riddell has been Cincinnati's top hitter.
· The Lexington, Ky., native is hitting .367 (29-of-79) over the past 20 contests, with five home runs and 15 RBI.
· Riddell has posted 11 multi-hit games in his past 18 contests to lead the team.
· The last four conference weekends, Riddell has been even more impressive.
· In the last four weekends of conference action, Riddell is 22-for-47 (.468) and he is slugging .787.
· Prior to the Notre Dame series, Riddell was hitting .067 (1-for-15) in conference play and he is currently leading the team with a .371 average in 21 conference games.
THE DECIDING NUMBER
· Despite their offensive struggles this season, the Bearcats have scored five or more runs in 21 of its 53 games.
· UC is 20-1 on the season when scoring five or more runs in a game.
· On Saturday, May 15, the Bearcats suffered their first loss of the season when scoring five or more runs in a game, losing to No. 22 Pittsburgh, 8-5.
· Last season, Cincinnati was 26-11 when scoring more than five runs in a game.
· On the other end of the scale, the Bearcats are just 4-26 when scoring less than five runs.
EXTRA-INNINGS
· Last season, Cincinnati was 4-0 in extra-inning contests.
· The Bearcats have struggled in 2010 in extra-inning games as UC is 0-3 in extra innings.
· The Bearcats lost to Penn State, 5-4, in 12 innings at the Big Ten/BIG EAST Baseball Challenge on Feb. 26, after UC led 4-3 entering the ninth inning.
· UC also dropped an extra-inning contest to Seton Hall, 4-3, on April 11, in addition to losing to Ohio University, 2-1, on April 20.
· The Bearcats have been outscored 4-1 in extra-innings this season.
LEADING THE CHARGE
· All season long, senior Jimmy Jacquot has ranked among the team leaders in home runs, and RBI.
· Jacquot currently leads the team with 12 home runs and 44 RBI.
· The 12 home runs and 44 RBI are tops in the league among catchers.
· The Swansea, Ill., native came through in a big way against Wright State on April 13, when he hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at five. UC came back later in the game and won, 6-5.
· Jacquot continued his late-game heroics against West Virginia on May 1, when he hit the go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to lead UC to the come-from-behind win.
· Jacquot has not only impressed offensively, but he has been an asset behind the plate.
· Entering the weekend, runners have attempted to steal 66 times on Jacquot and he has thrown out 25 runners. The 25 runners caught stealing by Jacquot leads the BIG EAST.
NEW YEAR, NEW RESULTS
· The Cincinnati pitching staff has 10 returners from last year's staff, giving the Bearcats an experienced group of hurlers.
· Last season, the UC pitching staff struggled with an ERA of 6.56, which ranked last in the BIG EAST.
· Through 50 games this season, the Bearcats pitching staff has been much improved as Cincinnati has an ERA of 4.21.
· Two of UC's starters, senior Tyler Smith and junior Dan Jensen have ERA's of 3.76 and 3.60, respectively.
· Senior Brian Garman and freshman Andrew Strenge have both pitched 30-plus innings in relief this season and own ERA's of 3.86 and 1.82, respectively.
· Six of UC's pitchers who have completed at least 30.0 innings of action this season have ERA's below 4.00.
· Entering the week, UC ranked 26th nationally in earned run average.
JOE NUXHALL CLASSIC
· In the inaugural Joe Nuxhall Classic in 2009, the Bearcats fell to Wright State and Miami (OH) in its two games in the tournament that honors the Ol' Lefthander.
· UC opened with Wright State in the 2010 Joe Nuxhall Classic at McKie Field at Hayden Park on the campus of Miami University and trailed 5-4 entering the ninth inning.
· In the ninth, senior Jimmy Jacquot belted a one out, solo home run to left field to tie the game up, before senior Kevin Johnson followed Jacquot with a single. Senior Brian Garman pinch ran for Johnson, stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error by the catcher, and then scored on a wild pitch to give UC the 6-5 come-from-behind win.
· In the championship game against Miami (OH), UC led from the get-go and senior Andrew Burkett nailed down his seventh save of the season to preserve the 3-2 win.
· UC captured its first Joe Nuxhall Classic title and improved to 2-2 all-time in the tournament.
· Junior Chris Peters was named tournament Most Valuable Player after going 4-for-9 (.444), with two RBI, and three stolen bases in the two-day event.
CLEARY HITS 350
· In his 14th season at Cincinnati, head coach Brian Cleary became just the second coach in program history to reach 350 wins for his career when UC defeated Seton Hall on Friday, April 9.
· After a win against No. 22 Pittsburgh on May 16, Cleary has accumulated 361 career wins at UC.
· Cleary's joins legendary coach Glenn Sample as the only two baseball coaches in UC history to accumulate 350 wins.
· Sample coached the Bearcats from 1961-1981 and led UC to four of the program's five NCAA Tournament berths and two Missouri Valley Conference championships.
· Sample finished his career as UC baseball's all-time winningest coach with 391 wins.