Baseball closes regular season against Tulane

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CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati baseball team wraps up the regular season at home and welcomes Tulane to a four-game series that will be played Thursday through Saturday at UC Baseball Stadium. Teams play a double header on Thursdays at 1:00 p.m. ET, followed by single games at 1:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Individual game tickets are available and fans should visit the baseball tickets page for more information or to make a purchase now! Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, 1,000 fans are admitted to the UC Baseball Stadium on match days.

EVENTS & PROMOTIONS

• UC men’s basketball coach Wes Miller will have a ceremonial first place ahead of Friday’s game.
• Saturday’s game will include the baseball bark-in-the-park event. All pets of Bearcats ticket holders get free entry if their human has bought a ticket for the game. View more information online.

All four games will air on ESPN +, with Matt Noonan (pxp) and Andy Nagel (ana) announcing the action. Live statistics are available on BearcatStats.com.

SERIAL INFORMATION
Live statistics: BearcatStats.com
Regard: ESPN +
Series record: Tulane leads 45-14
Last meeting: May 2019 (AAC tournament.)

CINCINNATI
Record for 2021: 25-24, 14-14 AAC
Head coach: Scott Googins
Record at UC: 91-91 (4.)
Career record: 432-448 (16.)

TULANE
Record for 2021: 28-18, 17-6 AAC
Head coach: Travis Jewett
School report: 127-110 (5.)
Career record: The same thing

PROBABLE ROTATIONS
THURSDAY, MAY 20 – 1

1 p.m. • ESPN +
LHP Garrett Schoenle vs. RHP Braden Olthoff

WATCH • LIVE STATISTICS

THURSDAY, MAY 20 – 2

45 minutes after Game 1 • ESPN +
RHP Zach Segal vs. LHP Jack Aldrich

WATCH • LIVE STATISTICS

FRIDAY, MAY 21st

1 p.m. • ESPN +
LHP Evan Shawver vs. RHP Donovan Benoit

WATCH • LIVE STATISTICS

SATURDAY, MAY 22nd

1 p.m. • ESPN +
RHP Jalen Wade vs. TBA

WATCH • LIVE STATISTICS

SERIES BUSINESS

• Tulane has a 45-14 lead in the all-time series, but UC has won the last two matchups, including an 8-4 win on May 23, 2019 at the AAC tournament in Clearwater, Florida.

A LOOK AT THE LANDSCAPE

• Not much has been decided in the last week of the regular season and the top five teams in the AAC standings are separated by four games. ECU have a lead of one game over Tulane with 18: 6 and 17: 6 respectively. Wichita State (15-12) is third, followed by the Bearcats and UCF, both 14-14. The AAC Championship begins Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at the BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida.

ABOUT THE BEARCATS

• UC is 25-24 and 14-14 in the AAC game after beating ECU in 10 innings and losing a one-run and two-run game to end the series.
• As a team, UC beats a .275 clip with an AAC-leading 84 doubles and 566 home runs with double-digit hits in 26 games.
• On the hill, UC has a team ERA of 5.56 with 398 strikeouts over 235 walks.

ELDERLY HEALTH

• UC honored its senior class ahead of Saturday’s matchup with the Pirates, including: Joey Bellini, Dondrae Bremner, Jake Hansen, Tanner Holen, Dean McCarthy, Jace Mercer, Jake Meyer, Nate Moore, Jake Murray, Eric Santiago, Garrett Schoenle, Wyatt Stapp, Jalen Wade and the student managers Michael DeLong and Jake Swearingen.

HONORING THE PAST

• UC will return to history this weekend, honoring teams from 1961 and 1971 on Saturday.

1961: Legendary trainer Glenn Sample has taken over the reins of the Bearcats. In its first season, Sample leads UC to a 19-5-2 record, the MVC championship and an appearance in the District IV playoffs. Bill Faul becomes Cincinnati’s first baseball All-American by being voted the first team. Lazy also has a UC record with 24 strikeouts in one game.

1971: The 1971 Bearcats finished the standings 26-18 and received a general offer for the District 4 playoffs in East Lansing, Michigan. UC made a run, beating Michigan State and Southern Illinois before falling to eventual national runners-up Salukis in consecutive games. UC was just one win away from playing in the College World Series. The team set a UC single season record with 22 triples.

FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATICS

• UC earned a double-header split with No. 1 thanks to a 7-6 walk-off win in 10 innings. 11 ECU.
• Cincinnati got two runs on a throwing error from ECU Connor Norby, who mistreated a Cole Harting bouncer and threw him over the first basemen to score two runs.
• It marked the UC’s second run, extra innings, over a ranked team at UC Baseball Stadium. The Bearcats then beat No. 5 Louisville on March 30, 2021, 13-12 in 10 innings.

MILESTONE WATCH

• Jace Mercer has 57 career bases stolen and it takes four to move to # 6 all-time (61).
• Mercer also needs 10 hits for 100 and seven RBIs for 100 in his career.
• Eric Santiago has 211 hits and takes 9 to reach the 10th all-time with 220 hits. He also needs eight doubles for 50 which would put him on the ninth all-time. 46 is 10.
• Evan Shawver needs five strikeouts for 150 in his career.
• Wyatt Stapp is 10 hits out of 150 and 21 RBIs out of 100.

TURN IT UP!

• The Cincinnati infield has made an AAC-best 47 doubles this season and ranks nationally behind Arizona State (52) and Auburn (50). UC leads the American in the field with 0.979. at

GO, GO, GONE

• The Bearcats have completed 56 home runs so far in 2021 and are in third place behind ECU (65) and UCF (62).
• Griffin Merritt leads the team with nine long balls while Jace Mercer and Cole Harting are on their heels with eight balls each.
• Merritt has hit seven of his nine homers against AAC enemies.
• UC is 12-4 in 16 games this season if he hits two or more home runs and 17-10 if he hits a home run in one game.
• UC has seven players with four or more homers this season.

A LEAGUE PLAY REVIVAL

• Ryan Nicholson got off to a slow start and hit .314 in the AAC game. His 26 walks are the team’s best.

DOUBLE ROLES FOR MCCARTHY

• LHP Dean McCarthy shared his time as starter and reliever this season and played 16 games in 2021.
• Elon’s graduate transfer made seven starts to open the campaign, but his last nine trips have been outside the bullpen.
• He has served 59.0 innings and went 4-3 with three saves.

THE BULLPEN crew

• Jackson Murphy, 19, Beau Keathley, 16, Nathan Moore, 15 and Max Bergmann, 14 are leading the bullpen appearances, while Aiden Bradbury, Dean McCarthy and Zach Segal all have nine.
• Keathley, McCarthy and Segal all spent time as starters.
• Murphy’s 2.67 ERA is the lowest on the staff and the hurler has 29 strikeouts in 30.1 innings.
• Bergman came out relieved in the first game against ECU, giving up five hits and a single run in 6.0 innings, his longest career outing.

TREND TOPICS

• UC lost three ECU in 11th place, but five of the eight games between the teams in 2021 were decided by two or fewer runs.
• Joey Bellini hit seven of the Bearcats runs and had two doubles among his five hits.
• Ryan Nicholson hit 0.333 that week with five hits and four RBIs.
• Dean McCarthy cut six in two appearances.
• Cole Harting and Tanner Holen each drew four walks.
• Eric Santiago crossed the plate five times and had four hits.

MERCER A HARD OUT

• Jace Mercer grabbed a spot on the AAC Honor Roll two weeks ago after scoring 0.556, 0.833 and 10 hits, including five doubles, four scoring runs and two walks in Houston.
• He hit .396 in the AAC game and had team bests with 44 hits, nine doubles, and 12 stolen bases.