Tickets𝙂𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬: 𝘾𝙤𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙋𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙤
— Cincinnati Baseball (@GoBearcatsBASE) January 17, 2025
Take a minute to learn more about another member of our coaching staff, @K_Pettoruto11!#Bearcats pic.twitter.com/tw3eV8xlj2
Kyle Pettoruto recently concluded his second season with Cincinnati in 2025.
His roles include overseeing the recruiting efforts of the program, instructing infield play, and assisting in all areas of the offense.
UC ended the 2025 season with a 33-26 overall record and earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament, the seventh tournament trip in program history and the first at-large berth since 1974. The Bearcats were the No. 3 seed in the Knoxville Regional and won their opening game against No. 2 seed Wake Forest, 11-6.
In his role as recruiting coordinator, Pettoruto has helped bring top-level talent to Cincinnati. He helped ink the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history in the Fall of 2024, and has also brought two highly-regarded transfer portal classes to Clifton as well. Cincinnati’s 2024 portal class ranked 15th nationally according to 64 Analytics.
The Bearcats were the top fielding team in the Big 12 in 2025 and one of the best in the country. UC’s .979 fielding percentage led the league and ranked 20th in the nation.
Pettoruto coached Jack Natili and Landyn Vidourek to excellent 2025 campaigns. Natili, who transferred to UC prior to the season, was a second team All-Big 12 performer, and Vidourek earned honorable mention all-conference honors. Vidourek was drafted in the third round by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2025 MLB Draft.
Pettoruto’s helped mentor Big 12 Player of the Year and Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist and 2025 MLB Draft seventh-round selection Kerrington Cross to one of the best seasons ever by a Bearcat. Freshman Quinton Coats also took over the starting duties at first base midway through the season and earned Big 12 All-Freshman Team honors, and shortstop Charlie Niehaus was named to the Brooks Wallace Award midseason watch list, an award that annually honors the top shortstops in the country.
In total, Pettoruto has coached three Bearcats to MLB Draft selections, with first team all-conference honoree Josh Kross being taken in the sixth round by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2024.
UC posted a 32-25 overall record in 2024 and a 17-13 mark in conference play, the program’s first 30-win season since 2019. Cincinnati finished the regular season in fifth place in the Big 12 after being picked to finish in last in the preseason coaches poll.
The Bearcats claimed six series wins in conference play including series vs. TCU, West Virginia, and UCF, and also posted an 18-8 record at home.
Six UC hitters earned All-Big 12 honors in 2024, including first-team selection Josh Kross. Two-way performer Christian Mitchelle was named to the second team while Lauden Brooks, Kerrington Cross, Josh Hegemann, and Tommy O’Connor were all honorable mention.
Under Pettoruto’s tutelage, Cincinnati scored 423 runs in 2024, the highest single-season total since the 2008 campaign. UC averaged 7.4 runs per game, which ranked fourth in the Big 12. The Bearcats were also among the national leaders in walks (320, most in school history) and stolen bases (109) and ranked atop the league in HBP (91).
Pettoruto officially joined the Cincinnati baseball program on July 11, 2023. He came to UC after following a four-year stint as the hitting coach/assistant coach for Rutgers University (2020-23).
Pettoruto helped lead Rutgers to back-to-back top-5 league finishes, rebuilding a program that had not finished better than 10th in its entire Big Ten history prior to his arrival. The Scarlet Knights went 77-38 (.670) overall and 31-17 (.646) in the Big Ten over the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Under Pettoruto's guidance in 2022, Rutgers had one of the most prolific lineups in all of college baseball. The Scarlet Knights led the country with 9.6 runs per game and were top-5 nationally in runs (565) and doubles (147). In addition, the 2022 recruiting class was ranked No. 25 by D1Baseball.com and Top 35 by Baseball America.
Prior to his time at Rutgers, Pettoruto spent six seasons at Bryant and was a part of six straight Northeast Conference regular season championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances.
He played a role in producing 40 All-NEC selections, 46 All-New England selections, six ABCA All-Northeast selections, two NEC and New England Players of the Year, four NEC Rookies of the Year, two New England Rookies of the Year, one Collegiate Baseball Freshman Player of the Year and four Freshman All-Americans in his six seasons at Bryant.
Prior to Bryant, Pettoruto worked as an assistant coach with the North Shore Navigators in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League in the summer of the 2012. Following the summer, Pettoruto was hired as an assistant coach at Merrimack. He worked with the outfielders and the hitters, helping the Warriors set a school record for wins in the spring of 2013.
Pettoruto was a four-year letterwinner at the University of New Haven and helped the Chargers earn a spot in the 2010 NCAA Tournament.