TicketsCINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati baseball team opened its four-game series vs. UC San Diego with a 9-5 win at UC Baseball Stadium on Thursday.
With the win, the Bearcats improve to 10-4 on the season.
The game started three hours later than originally scheduled due to rain, with first pitch coming at 7:05 p.m. Game two on Friday is set for a 4:00 p.m. start. Fans are encouraged to keep an eye on GoBearcats.com and @GoBearcatsBASE on social media for any schedule updates.
Led by junior Nathan Taylor, Cincinnati’s pitchers logged 17 strikeouts on Thursday, the most in a single game by a UC squad since at least 2012. The previous single-game high during the Jordan Bischel era came against Akron in 2024 when the Bearcats had 16 strikeouts.
Taylor had 11 of Cincinnati’s K’s, tying his career high that he set last season in a start at UNLV. Freshman Chad Brown pitched the final 2.1 innings, earning a save, and had four strikeouts while allowing just one baserunner. Sophomore Adam Buczkowski had two punchouts in his relief outing.
At the plate, sophomore Quinton Coats stayed hot with two home runs, his first career multi-homer game. He now has eight home runs on the year and drove in a career-best five runs in the winning effort.
Cincinnati pounded out 14 hits as a team, with six players posting multi-hit efforts. Coats did the bulk of the offensive damage while sophomore Jackson Smith, sophomore Derrick Pitts, redshirt sophomore Charlie Niehaus, and senior Christian Mitchelle all drove in runs as well. Smith was 2-for-3 with an RBI triple, a walk, and HBP out of the leadoff spot.
Sophomore Conlan Daniel reached base four times, going 2-for-2 with a pair of walks. Junior Cal Sefcik, who missed much of the early portion of the season due to injury, returned to the starting lineup and was 2-for-4 with a double.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Nathan Taylor struck out five across the first two innings, but UC San Diego’s Nick Costello led off the top of the third with a homer to give his team a 1-0 lead.
- Conlan Daniel led off the bottom of the third with a walk and later scored on Jackson Smith’s RBI triple to tie things up at 1-1.
- Quinton Coats gave UC the lead with his seventh home run of the season in the third inning, a two-run shot off the scoreboard.
- UCSD’s Alex Leopard responded with a two-run homer of his own the next inning to tie it up at 3-3.
- Coats left the yard for the second time of the game in the bottom of the fifth, smashing a three-run homer to give UC a 6-3 lead.
- The next inning, Derrick Pitts singled down the line in right field to bring home Daniel and increase the lead to 7-3.
- UC ran into a bit of trouble in the top of the seventh, as the Tritons used an error, two walks, and two HBP to bring in a couple runs and make it 7-5.
- Christian Mitchelle’s bunt single allowed Jack Natili to score in the seventh to get one of those runs back and give the Bearcats an 8-5 advantage.
- Charlie Niehaus made it 9-5 with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh.
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