PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball welcomes Cincinnati to Provo for a Big 12 three-game series at Miller Park, March 12-14. The Thursday-Friday games are set for 3:00 p.m. MT, with Saturday’s contest scheduled for 1:00 p.m. MT. The game on Thursday marks Trent Pratt's 200th game as the head baseball coach at BYU.
BROADCAST PLANS. All three games of the BYU-Cincinnati series will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and will also be available on BYUradio.org and on the BYU Radio app.
| BYU vs. Cincinnati | Miller Park | Provo, Utah | |||
| Date & Time (MST) | Watch | Listen | Live Stats |
| Thursday, March 12 at 3 pm | ESPN+ | BYU Radio | Follow |
| Friday, March 13 at 3 pm | ESPN+ | BYU Radio | Follow |
| Saturday, March 14 at 1 pm | ESPN+ | BYU Radio | Follow |
COUGAR REWIND. BYU wrapped up its pre-conference schedule at 7-8 on the year with a 19-2 win over Utah Tech on Tuesday evening at Miller Park. After splitting the opening series of the year at Western Kentucky (2-2), the Cougars went 4-3 on a 10-day road trip through California before dropping a home series to Cal Baptist (0-3) last weekend.
BYU is led by Ezra McNaughton, the Cougar statistical leader in almost every category. The sophomore is hitting .382 with 26 hits, 18 RBI, 15 runs, 6 homers, 4 doubles, 48 total bases and a slugging percentage of .706 — all team highs.
On the mound, Ashton Johnson is 2-1 on the year with an ERA of 3.12. He has thrown a team-leading 17.1 innings and is second in strikeouts with 14. Five Cougar pitchers have won so far this season, including Cayson Bell (1-0), Austin Park (1-0), Dan Brousseau (1-0), Nate Wochner (1-1) and Nate Gray (1-3). BYU’s team ERA of 5.88 is almost a run better than its opponents, who have combined for an ERA of 6.58.
COMMON FOE. Cincinnati and BYU share two common opponents in 2026 — Western Kentucky and UC San Diego. The Cougars began the season by going 2-2 at WKU and defeated UCSD, 9-8, on Feb. 21 in San Diego. Cincy defeated the Hilltoppers, 5-2, on March 3 in Bowling Green, before sweeping four games from the Tritons in Cincinnati, March 5-8.
SERIES HISTORY. The Cougars and Bearcats had never met in baseball until 2024, when the two Big 12 newcomers matched up in Provo on May 9-11, 2024. Cincinnati took a 3-0 lead in the young series by sweeping BYU, 9-5, 4-2, 12-5. Despite the losses, then true freshman Crew McChesney hit .600 for the series with three doubles, two runs, an RBI and three walks. Last season, BYU took two of three games from Cincinnati at UC Baseball Stadium, winning the bookend games 7-5, 4-5, 4-2.
KNOW THE FOE. Cincinnati heads to Provo with a 14-4 season record, good for second in the Big 12 standings just behind West Virginia. The Bearcats have won seven games in a row, including a win over Evansville on Tuesday and five wins the previous week over Western Kentucky (1-0) and UC San Diego (4-0).
The Bearcats are led by sophomore infielder Quinton Coats, who is the reigning Big 12 Player of the Week, having led the country with seven home runs in five Cincinnati victories. Coats hit .500 (11-for-22) with 17 RBI and 10 runs scored while slugging 1.545 last week. He homered in every game and had at least three RBI in all four games against UC San Diego. His 12 home runs are second-most in D1 baseball.
Cincinnati catcher Jack Natili and starting pitcher Nathan Taylor were named to the Big 12 Preseason Baseball Team. Natili is hitting .329 with three home runs and 17 RBI, while Taylor is 1-0 on the year with a 4.19 ERA with 27 strikeouts over a team-leading 19.1 innings pitched. The Bearcats were picked to finish eighth in the Big 12 Baseball Preseason Poll.
COMPARING BIG 12 TEAM STATS. Cincinnati enters the weekend series hitting .308 as a team, good for fourth-best in the Big 12 Conference. BYU checks in at .291, good for seventh. On the hill, the Bearcats currently rank second with a team ERA of 3.57, while the Cougars are 12th at 5.88. BYU is 10th in the league in fielding percentage at .969, while Cincy is 13th at .960.
ON DECK. Following the weekend series with Cincinnati, BYU will travel south for a midweek game at Utah Tech on March 17. The Cougars will then travel to the East Coast to take on West Virginia in the first conference road trip of the season, March 19-21.