2015 Cincinnati Bearcats baseball team
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.
2015 Cincinnati Bearcats baseball | |
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Conference | American Athletic Conference |
2015 record | 13–30 (4–11 The American) |
Head coach | Ty Neal (2nd season) |
Assistant coaches |
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Home stadium | Marge Schott Stadium |
2015 American Athletic Conference baseball standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Team | W | L | T | PCT | W | L | T | PCT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Houston †y | 16 | – | 8 | – | 0 | .667 | 43 | – | 20 | – | 0 | .683 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
East Carolina‡y | 15 | – | 9 | – | 0 | .625 | 40 | – | 22 | – | 0 | .645 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tulane y | 13 | – | 11 | – | 0 | .542 | 35 | – | 25 | – | 0 | .583 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
South Floriday | 13 | – | 11 | – | 0 | .542 | 34 | – | 26 | – | 1 | .566 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memphis | 12 | – | 12 | – | 0 | .500 | 37 | – | 21 | – | 0 | .638 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Connecticut | 11 | – | 13 | – | 0 | .458 | 35 | – | 25 | – | 0 | .583 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UCF | 10 | – | 14 | – | 0 | .417 | 31 | – | 27 | – | 0 | .534 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cincinnati | 6 | – | 18 | – | 0 | .250 | 15 | – | 41 | – | 0 | .268 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
† – Conference champion ‡ – Tournament champion y – Invited to the NCAA Tournament As of June 30, 2015[1]; Rankings from Collegiate Baseball |
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.
Personnel
Roster
2015 Cincinnati Bearcats roster[2] | ||||||||
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Coaching Staff
Name | Position | Seasons at Cincinnati | Alma Mater |
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Ty Neal | Head Coach | 2 | Miami University (1999) |
Adam Bourassa | Assistant Coach | 2 | Wake Forest University (2003) |
John Lackaff | Assistant Coach | 1 | Miami University (2003) |
Season
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.[3] In their second series of the year, the Bearcats were swept in a three-game road series against Santa Clara.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]
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.[7] 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.[8]
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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11]
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.[12] In the final game of the series, Cincinnati allowed 17 runs, marking the highest total of runs scored by Nevada since 2010.[13]
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.[14] 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.[15] To close out the series, the Bearcats were subject to the run rule as they fell to USF 4–15 in seven innings.
Schedule
Legend | |
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Cincinnati win | |
Cincinnati loss | |
Postponement | |
Bold | Cincinnati team member |
2015 Cincinnati Bearcats Baseball Game Log |
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Regular Season |
February
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March
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April
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May
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Post-Season |
All rankings from Collegiate Baseball. |
Awards and honors
- Ian Happ
- Louisville Slugger Pre-season Third team All-American[16]
- Perfect Game USA Pre-season First team All-American[17]
- Pre-season AAC Player of the Year[18]
- Pre-season All-AAC[18]
- Baseball America Pre-season First team All-American[19]
- AAC Player of the Year[20]
- First Team All-Conference Unanimous Selection[20]
References
- "2015 Baseball Standings". American Athletic Conference. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
- "Official Baseball Roster". Cincinnati Bearcats. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
- "MSU baseball beats Cincinnati to complete weekend sweep". The Dispatch. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
- "The Good and Bad in Santa Clara". 247sports.com. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
- "Weekend Schedule Changes for Cincinnati Baseball". gobearcats.com. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
- "Baseball sweeps Cincinnati". The Daily Iowan. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
- "Weather Cancels Game vs. Xavier". gobearcats.com. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- "Men's baseball sweeps Niagara University in series, 3-0". newsrecord.org. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- "Ka'ai Tom's Cycle Powers Baseball to 9-1 Win at Cincinnati". ukwildcats.com. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- "Baseball Postpones Series Opener against Toledo". gobearcats.com. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- "Rockets Suffer 11-2 Setback in Series Finale with Cincinnati". utrockets.com. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- "Wolf Pack creams Cincinnati for fifth win in five days". Reno Gazette-Journal. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
- "Pack Scores Most Runs Since 2010 in 17-6 Victory Over Cincinnati". kolotv.com. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
- "Vols "hit the reset button" and defeat Cincinnati 7-0". The Daily Beacon. Archived from the original on 2015-04-04. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
- "USF Baseball Walks Off With Win Over Cincinnati". College Baseball Central. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
- "NCAA Div. I Pre-Season All-Americans". Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
- "Preseason College All-Americans". Perfect Game USA. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
- "2015 American Athletic Conference Preseason Poll And Awards". College Baseball Daily. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
- "2015 College Preview: All-America Teams". Baseball America. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
- "Cincinnati's Happ Named American Athletic Conference Player of the Year". American Athletic Conference. Retrieved May 18, 2015.