TicketsMANHATTAN, Kan. -- The Cincinnati baseball team has arrived at its third and final destination of its seven-game road trip, this time prepping for Kansas State.
All three weekend games will air on ESPN+.
Cincinnati banged out a season-high 20 hits, including four homers, on a cold Tuesday night to defeat Oral Roberts. The Bearcats have won six in a row, which is one off a season-high. Another seven-game win streak last year was the longest since 10 in 2016.
The Bearcats are 17-6 in May regular-season play under Jordan Bischel, and the Houston sweep was the fifth of that span. Bischel is also two wins away from 100, and Cincinnati's best three-year stretches all-time were 99 wins from 1999-01 and 2006-08. Cincinnati's 15-11 road record comes after being 13-16 last year and 10-15 in 2024.
It's not always about how you play, but how you respond: Cincinnati is 12-4 since being swept at Oklahoma State, winning four-straight series that includes two ranked foes that have allowed UC to rise to No. 20 by Baseball America.
Quinton Coats fought and eventually obtained his Cincinnati single-season school record 24th homer. He surpassed Mike Spina (2009) in the process. He now has 30 for his career and is fifth nationally (third in the Big 12).
Five of UC's top six hitters are in their first or second year of college. Freshman Enzo Infelise leads the pack with a .373 batting average, which includes seven homers and a 30-game on-base streak that was snapped in Houston. His .352 average in league play also leads UC.
Charlie Niehaus homered and doubled as part of a three-hit night. Five of his six multi-hit games have come in Big 12 play, and he also had three hits to open the Houston series. Conlan Daniel is another charge for the Bearcats in the back end of the order, homering as part of a four-hit game at Houston and making SportsCenter for a home run robbery.
Nathan Taylor mowed down Houston, matching a career-high 11 strikeouts for his fifth double-digit game of the season. He now has 98 Ks on the year, 11 from tying the program record. The junior is also 25 away from reaching the career mark with 259.
Freshman Connor Blue pitched a career-high six innings Sunday at Houston, allowing only one earned run. Cincinnati has won each of his last three starts. Fellow rookie Chad Brown had a rough outing at UCF, but he has responded with 3 2/3 innings and one run against No. 12 West Virginia (emergency long relief following Logan Knight's injury) and two scoreless extra innings at Houston for the Sunday win.
Cincinnati swiped six bases against Oral Roberts, its fourth time with that many. The 107 for the year lead the Big 12 by 20 entering the weekend and rank fifth among the Power 4. Last year's 134 marked the program record.
UC is 26-6 when scoring six-plus runs and 24-5 when scoring first.