TicketsCINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati baseball team will conclude its homestand Tuesday night as it hosts crosstown rival Xavier at 6 p.m.
New men's basketball head coach Jerrod Calhoun will throw the ceremonial first pitch at 5:50 p.m. on behalf of his alma mater. Fans are also asked to wear red. The happy hour special continues as well with $5 domestic beers prior to first pitch, as well as Discount Tuesdays ($2 hot dogs, $7 tickets).
Cincinnati's bid for a four-game win streak, and first Big 12 sweep of the season, fell one inning short on Sunday as Baylor scored five runs in the ninth.
Derrick Pitts hit .571 over the week, doing it all as usual in the weekend series: home run, sac bunt, bunt single and sac fly. He leads UC with a .374 batting average, which also ranks eighth in the Big 12.
Quinton Coats walked off the Friday run-rule win with his 21st homer of the season, putting him third in school history. Arizona State's Landon Hairston overtook him for the national lead with 23, and another Big 12 slugger (Oklahoma State's Kollin Ritchie) is third at 20. He is tied for second in school history and trails only Mike Spina's 23 in 2009 for the UC record.
Coats is also second in the country for total bases (129), seventh for RBI (52), 15th for slugging (.801) and 17th in hits (55).
Jackson Smith drew his 19th hit-by-pitch this weekend, tying for fourth in UC single-season history. It leads the Big 12 by seven and ranks 10th nationally. Cincinnati's 66 HBPs lead the Big 12, and the 91 in Jordan Bischel's first season (2024) serve as the program record. The 75 in 2025 rank third.
Cincinnati is 20-5 when scoring six or more runs, and the Bearcats have recorded 10 or more hits in each of the last four games. Its season-highs of 20 hits and 20 runs both came in the second Utah game.
Though starting pitching earned most of the credit (Nate Taylor and Logan Knight combined for 14 innings and one run the first two games), this weekend marked the fewest runs allowed in a series this year (9). The previous was Jacksonville State in the opener (11).
The last midweek game, an 8-7 win over Miami (OH), saw the Bearcats utilize seven pitchers.
ABOUT XAVIER
UC held a 2-0 lead into the seventh and 3-2 lead in the ninth before falling to the Musketeers on the road on March 24. Coats' home run in the third came off starter Joey Young.
Xavier is 9-15 on the road this year, though it includes series against East Carolina, Arkansas, Cal State Fullerton and Oregon State, plus other notable midweek matchups. It enters Tuesday on a four-game win streak (Wright State in Mason, Villanova at home).
The series began in 1906, with one game in 1914 and almost-entirely annual competition since 1947.