TicketsCINCINNATI — The Cincinnati baseball team will look to build off its emphatic Tuesday rivalry win as it travels to the Sunshine State to face UCF in a three-game series.
Cincinnati opened and closed its 15-5 win on Tuesday with home runs, the first a leadoff jack by Ryan Tyranski and the last a first-pitch bomb from Enzo Infelise in the seventh.
Quinton Coats' 431-foot grand slam on Tuesday put him one away from matching the school record (Mike Spina, 23 in 2009). He enters the weekend on a five-game hit streak with nine RBI over that span. He is second nationally in homers (22) and total bases (134).
Tyranski, since hitting leadoff for the first time against Miami (OH), is 10-for-20 with five walks, three doubles (all last Friday vs. Baylor), a triple and home run in five games. Jackson Smith, who enters as the leadoff hitter in 30 of 39 games, has since made the unconventional move to the No. 3 hole. He is batting a team-high .415 with RISP while ranking seventh nationally with 20 HBPs.
Infelise, who boasted one of the potent Bearcats' top barrel rates of the fall, was named the No. 4 impact freshmen in the Big 12 by D1Baseball in the preseason. He has hit safely in six-straight, and 18 of the last 21 games, and three of his five homers have come in league play. He is hitting a team-high .377 in Big 12 play and was high school teammates with Smith.
Derrick Pitts leads the Bearcats in hitting at .377. He has been a five-tool player in his year and a half: a diving catch at Tennessee in last year's regional, robbing a home run at BYU, doubling off two Kansas runners, 12 extra-base hits, bunt singles and sacrifices and 12 stolen bases to rank second on the team. He has a team-high 19 multi-hit games.
On the rubber, Nate Taylor has pitched into the seventh inning in four-straight starts. He most recently allowed one run against Baylor, matching his career-high of 11 strikeouts. He is third in the Big 12 for both strikeouts (71) and K/BB ratio (4.73). The junior is fifth all-time at UC with 232 punch-outs, with the record at 284.
Logan Knight will be someone to monitor. After starting all 29 appearances for North Dakota State from 2024-25, he moved to the bullpen for two games. After a tough start at Oklahoma State, he rebounded with a season-high 7 shutout innings against Baylor.
Adam Buczkowski went a season-high 3 1/3 shutout innings vs. Xavier, allowing only one hit. His 17 appearances lead the team. Dominic Mauro, after spending his first two years at Northwood, has five saves: all two or more innings. Freshman Chad Brown is also gaining more exposure with a 2.78 ERA and fellow rookie Connor Blue, who has started five games, went a season-high 4 2/3 innings against Baylor on Sunday with only one earned run.
Cincinnati leads the Big 12 in HBPs, stolen bases and triples, naturally emulating Jordan Bischel's style of play. UC is also 21-5 when scoring six or more runs.