TicketsSTARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Cincinnati baseball team has settled in Mississippi for its Starkville Regional opener on Friday night against No. 25 Louisiana.
First pitch is at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+. The rest of the double-elimination field includes host Mississippi State and Lipscomb.
BACK TO THE REGIONALS (AND STARKVILLE)
Cincinnati is making its eighth postseason appearance, which includes its first of back-to-back seasons and third since 2019.
This trip to the Magnolia State is also a familiar sight to Jordan Bischel, who took his first Central Michigan team there in 2019. The 47-14 Chippewas beat Miami (Fla.) in the opener before falling to the host Bulldogs, 7-2, following an early deficit and going up against Ethan Small, the National Pitcher of the Year. CMU fell to Miami in the Sunday rematch.
Bischel's 2021 squad reached the South Bend final after eliminating Michigan and UConn out of the loser's bracket.
His 2022 CMU squad fell to host Florida, defeated Liberty in 12 innings and lost to the Gators in the ninth inning.
Cincinnati's No. 2 starter, Logan Knight, has unique experience in the NCAAs as well. Last year, he led North Dakota State to its 21st win of the season with 6 1/3 innings and two earned runs against No. 23 Kansas in Fayetteville.
CINCINNATI'S POSTSEASON HISTORY
The Bearcats showed no trepidation in last year's Knoxville Regional opener, jumping out to an 8-0 lead in the second inning. Then-freshmen Quinton Coats and Derrick Pitts homered, while Nate Taylor struck out seven over six innings in an 11-6 win.
The following night saw Tennessee lead 2-0 in the first before Pitts' diving catch (his first of three career #SCTop10 appearances) stranded the bases loaded. UC fought back, but the Vols scored four runs in the sixth to pull away, 10-6.
The 2019 season, which featured an improbable 4-game sweep of the AAC Tournament (complete with a 22-5 win over UConn in the title game) witnessed the greatest upset in program history. The Bearcats stunned defending national champ Oregon State, 7-6, in the opener, and it featured a bases-loaded intentional walk of star Adley Rutschman.
NCAA APPEARANCES
YEAR Record
1956 (one-game series) 0-1
1961 (District 4, Ann Arbor) 1-2
1967 (District 5, Stillwater) 1-2
1971 (District 4, East Lansing) 2-2
1974 (District 4, Minneapolis) 0-2
2019 (Corvallis Regional) 1-2
2025 (Knoxville Regional) 1-2
*The 1958 team won the Missouri Valley Conference, but the NCAA ruled UC was ineligible due to having freshmen competing, whereas the MVC permitted it.
ABOUT THE BEARCATS
Cincinnati earned its ninth NCAA Regional bid, and first No. 2 seed, following yet another strong finish under Bischel.
The Bearcats are also 21-8 in May regular-season games in his tenure, as well as 13-14 against ranked teams (5-3 this year). The Bearcats have only 13 upperclassmen, and five of their top-six hitters in their first or second year of college.
DH/C Enzo Infelise was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year. Three Bearcats were named to the First Team: Quinton Coats, Nathan Taylor and Enzo Infelise, while Adam Buczkowski and Jack Natili made the Second Team. Connor Blue and Ryan Tyranski joined Infelise on the All-Freshman squad.
Taylor broke the UC single-season strikeout record in his final home start, earning an outstanding ovation. The junior is now 11 away from tying the career record, and his 21 wins (with only seven losses) are also tied for that program record.
Coats is fourth nationally for home runs (28), fifth in total bases (181) and sixth in RBIs (78), padding the school record in the first two. He is also one RBI from tying that record. The three-time Big 12 Player of the Week recently homered and doubled three times apiece against Texas Tech, hitting .568. He has reached safely in 28-straight games.
Natili is one of 16 semifinalists for the Buster Posey Award. He is one of four nationally with two, 3-homer games this season, totaling 16 on the year with 59 RBIs and a .336 batting average. He has also helped the pitching staff to back-to-back seasons of strikeout records and now the No. 3 ERA in the Big 12. He holds a 3.6 GPA in industrial management and was rated No. 71 among MLB Draft prospects by ESPN last week.
The bullpen has been carried by Buczkowski (27 appearances). He holds a 4-1 record with six saves, and five of those have been for more than an inning. The high-leverage bullpen ace has also limited opponents to a miniscule .174 batting average.
Cincinnati's nine homers against Texas Tech gave it 84 on the year, fourth in school history, fifth in the Big 12 and the most since 87 in 2022. UC is also about the speed, as its 115 steals lead the Big 12 by 20 and rank fifth among the Power 4. It had a school-record 134 last year.
UC leads the Big 12 with 89 HBPs following 75 in 2025 and a program-record 91 in Bischel's first year. Jackson Smith has drawn a league-high 22 HBPs (second in program history), and Ryan Tyranski is sixth in the Big 12 with a .467 on-base percentage.
Cincinnati is 22-5 when scoring in the first inning and 28-6 when scoring six or more runs.