TicketsPROVO, Utah – The University of Cincinnati baseball team got back in the win column on Friday, taking game two at BYU by a score of 9-7.
The Bearcats improved to 15-5 with the win and 1-1 in Big 12 play. The 15-5 start is the best for UC since 2000, when the team also won 15 of its first 20 games.
Cincinnati struck first on Friday and led until a two-run bottom of the seventh for the Cougars gave them a 6-5 advantage. Sophomore Quinton Coats tied the game in the top of the eighth with an RBI single and junior Jack Natili drove Coats home on a double, which ended up being the game-winning run.
Cincinnati hitters logged 15 hits on Friday, with Coats and fellow sophomores Conlan Daniel and Jackson Smith all tallying three apiece. Coats homered, as did Daniel and redshirt sophomore Charlie Niehaus. Daniel and Niehaus went back-to-back in the fourth inning.
For Coats, it was his 13th home run of the season, putting him one behind the national leader in Georgia’s Daniel Jackson (14). Coats has now homered in six of his last eight games.
For Daniel, it was his best game as a Bearcat. He went 3-for-4, with all three hits going for extra bases (one home run, two doubles). He also threw a runner out at the plate in the first inning.
Smith was 3-for-4 as well with a double and two runs scored. He has reached base safely in all 19 games he has played in this season.
Senior Logan Knight made the start and struck out five over 5.1 frames. Freshman Chad Brown and junior Dominic Mauro saw time out of the bullpen. Brown earned the win and Mauro earned the save, the second of the year for both in each respective category.
The series wraps up on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. ET.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Quinton Coats homered for the first time in Big 12 play, launching a two-run shot in the top of the first that traveled 467 feet.
- BYU nearly scored its first run of the game in the bottom of the first, but Conlan Daniel ended the inning by throwing a runner out at the plate.
- In the top of the fourth, Daniel and Charlie Niehaus went back-to-back to make it 4-0. Niehaus homered first, then Daniel.
- Derrick Pitts added a run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth, extending UC’s lead to 5-0.
- Logan Knight retired five straight heading into the bottom of the sixth, but ran into some trouble in that inning. BYU would end up scoring four, three of which came on a home run from Easton Jones, to make it 5-4.
- BYU’s Luke Anderson hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to give his team its first lead of the game at 6-5.
- A big top of the eighth put the Bearcats back in front. Coats tied the game at 6-6 with an RBI single, then Jack Natili doubled in Coats for the go-ahead run. Cal Sefcik’s RBI single into center field made it 8-6.
- BYU’s Anderson singled through the right side in the bottom of the eighth, driving in a run and trimming UC’s lead to 8-7.
- Jackson Smith got that run back in the top of the ninth on an RBI double, which scored Niehaus from second base.
- Dominic Mauro sent the Cougars down in order in the bottom of the ninth.
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