Head coach Ty Neal (2nd year) | Home stadium Marge Schott Stadium | |
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Conference American Athletic Conference 2015 record 13–30 (4–11 The American) Assistant coach Adam Bourassa (2nd year) Assistant coach John Lackaff (1st year) | ||
The 2015 Cincinnati Bearcats baseball team represents the University of Cincinnati during the 2015 NCAA Division I baseball season. The Bearcats play their home games at Marge Schott Stadium as a member of the American Athletic Conference. They are led by head coach Ty Neal, in his second season at Cincinnati.
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Previous Season
In 2014, the Bearcats finished the season 10th in the American with a record of 22–31, 6–18 in conference play. They failed to qualify for the 2014 American Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament or the 2014 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.
February
The Bearcats opened their season with a four-game tournament in Starkville, Mississippi against Miami (OH) and Mississippi State. In the first game, the Bearcats defeated Miami (OH) 3–1, but they were swept in the next three games by a nationally ranked Mississippi State team. In their second series of the year, the Bearcats were swept in a three-game road series against Santa Clara. Ian Happ recorded ten hits over the three games.
Cincinnati was originally scheduled to compete in a tournament at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, from February 27–March 1, but inclement weather forced the Bearcats to schedule a three-game series against Iowa in Emerson, Georgia. Over the three game series, the Bearcats were again swept, marking their third straight weekend series sweep to open the season, and nine straight losses following a neutral site win over Miami (OH). The closest Cincinnati came to a win in the series was in the final game, in which the Bearcats allowed five runs in the thirteenth inning in the loss.
March
The Bearcats were scheduled to host a midweek game against Xavier on March 4, but the game was cancelled due to weather and not rescheduled. Cincinnati's first weekend series of the month was against Niagara, out of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Against the Purple Eagles, the Bearcats picked up their first weekend sweep of the year. To complete the sweep, freshman Manny Rodriguez hit a walk off single in the tenth inning of the final game to lead Cincinnati to a 2–1 win.
In their second midweek game of the month, the Bearcats hosted Southeastern Conference foe Kentucky. Kentucky's Ka'ai Tom hit for the cycle for the Wildcats as they picked up a 9–1 win over Cincinnati. Cincinnati then hosted Toledo in a three-game weekend series from March 14–15. The first game of the series was originally scheduled for March 13, but weather pushed the game back to the 14th as part of a doubleheader. The Bearcats went on to win the series, two games to one, dropping the first game of the doubleheader before rebounding to win the final two games.
The Bearcats did not play a midweek game heading into a road series against nationally ranked Nevada over the sixth weekend of the season. Cincinnati endured their fourth weekend sweep of the season as they fell to the Wolf Pack all four games of the series. In the final game of the series, Cincinnati allowed 17 runs, marking the highest total of runs scored by Nevada since 2010.
On March 25, Cincinnati visited Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers had struggled with high expectations early in the season, but had no issues with the visiting Bearcats, leaving home with a 7–0 win. The following weekend, the Bearcats hit the road again to open American Athletic Conference play, visiting South Florida. For the second straight weekend, and the fifth time on the year, the Bearcats were swept over the weekend. After a 4–8 in the first game, the Bulls were subject to a walk-off base hit to lose 3–4 in 11 innings in the second game. To close out the series, the Bearcats were subject to the run rule as they fell to USF 4–15 in seven innings.
Schedule
All rankings from Collegiate Baseball.