Baseball Travels Across Town to Face Cincinnati on Tuesday

Tuesday, April 14

Cincinnati, Ohio

6:00 PM

Xavier University

Cincinnati

Baseball Travels Across Town to Face Cincinnati on Tuesday

04.13.26 | Baseball

Live Stats Live Stream

Musketeers and Bearcats get underway at 6:00 p.m. at UC Baseball Stadium

By: Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI – Xavier baseball heads across town to face Cincinnati in a midweek match-up on Tuesday, April 14, at UC Baseball Stadium. The Musketeers and Bearcats set for a 6:00 p.m. start on ESPN+.

MUSKETEER NOTABLES

Xavier has won the last four and eight of the last nine after sweeping Villanova in a three-game series last weekend, and taking a win over Wright State in the Joe Nuxhall Classic on Tuesday.
Clay Burdette leads the BIG EAST with a .383 average at the plate, driving in a team-high 30 RBIs and scoring a team-leading 26 runs. Among his team-leading 44 hits are 12 doubles, the most in the BIG EAST, and 11 home runs, for a 0.809 slugging percentage, the best mark in the conference and No. 11 in NCAA DI. Burdette also leads Xavier's everyday players with a .464 on-base percentage.
Josh Stonehouse leads the Musketeers with 12 home runs, 37th most in NCAA DI and tied for second most in the country among freshmen. Stonehouse, who is currently batting .264, has 29 RBIs and 23 runs scored for his freshman season, with both marks only trailing Burdette among the Musketeers.
Friday starter Ryan Piech leads Xavier's qualified pitchers with a 3.13 ERA across 46.0 innings of work. Piech has made nine starts, with a 5-3 record. His five wins are tied for the most among BIG EAST pitchers and rank No. 51 in NCAA DI. Piech, who has limited opposing batters to a .183 average at the plate, leads Xavier's qualified pitchers with a WHIP of 1.07, while his 5.87 hits allowed per nine innings leads the BIG EAST and is No. 30 in NCAA DI.
Piech's team-high 59 strikeouts rank in the top three in the conference and No. 64 in DI, while his 11.54 strikeouts per nine innings leads the league and ranks No. 65 in the country.
Ashton Chronister has made 12 appearances on the mound, including eight starts, with a 4.14 ERA through 41.1 innings pitched. Already for his junior season, Chronister has a career-high 26 strikeouts.
Garrett Helsel has made 15 appearances out of the bullpen, posting a 4.21 ERA through 25.2 innings pitched. His 29 strikeouts trail only Piech among Musketeers and he's one of three Musketeers with three saves on the season, with Owen Poole and Karter Muck each earning three as well.

CINCINNATI

Cincinnati enters the week at 24-14 overall with a 6-9 mark in Big 12 play. The Bearcats have won three of their last four after topping Miami (Ohio) in the Joe Nuxhall Classic on Wednesday at Prasco Park, and taking two of three against Baylor over the weekend.
A pair of Bearcats, junior catcher Jack Natili and junior pitcher Nathan Taylor, were named Preseason All-Big 12 ahead of the season.
Cincinnati went 33-26 last season with a 16-14 record in Big 12 play, earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship. Cincinnati up play in the Knoxville Regional with a win over Wake Forest, before being eliminated with losses to host Tennessee and the Demon Deacons.
The Musketeers are 56-73 all-time against the Bearcats after taking a 4-3 walk-off win at Hayden Field on March 24, Xavier's fourth-straight win over Cincinnati.
In the match-up earlier this season, UC took a 2-0 lead into the seventh where the Musketeers scored a pair. The Bearcats retook the lead, 3-2, in the ninth, but a solo home run from Luke Hammond tied it up in the bottom of the frame. Clay Burdette got on with double and Jonathan Fitz drove him in with a single for the walk-off win.

WEEKLY AWARDS

Ryan Piech earned a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll, the league office announced on Monday.
Piech posted a 0.00 ERA for the week after going 6.0 innings in the start in game one against Villanova, allowing just one run, unearned, on three hits, striking out seven and walking just two. He picked up the win, his team-leading fifth of the season.
For the year, Piech has a 3.13 ERA through 46.0 innings pitched across nine starts, leading the Musketeers with 59 strikeouts.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Xavier heads back out on the road next weekend for a three-game series at Seton Hall, running April 17-19 in South Orange, N.J.
The Musketeers remain on the road to face Vanderbilt on Tuesday, April 21, set for a 7:00 p.m. ET start.

2026 SCHEDULE

The Musketeers are set to face teams from nine conferences outside of BIG EAST play, as well as Oregon State, which will compete as an independent in baseball this season.
Among the 23 programs Xavier is scheduled to face this season, 10 played in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, with three teams taking part in the College World Series.
Six teams on the 2026 schedule were ranked in 2026 USA TODAY Preseason Coaches Poll: No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 11 Louisville, No. 12 Oregon State, No. 18 Vanderbilt and No. 23 Oregon. East Carolina, UConn and Cal State Fullerton also received votes in the poll.
Xavier played 17 of the first 18 games on the road, traveling to North Carolina, Arkansas, California and Oregon for the first four weekends of the season.
The Musketeers will travel to 10 states outside of Ohio as well as the District of Columbia.
Xavier's non-conference strength of schedule has ranked in the top five in each of the last two seasons, finishing 2025 at No. 5 and 2024 at No. 3.
The Musketeers overall strength of schedule also ranked in the top 40 in the last two seasons (2025 - No. 37, 2024 - No. 25).

XAVIER HOME BROADCAST INFO

Xavier Athletics announced that 17 spring home sporting events will be broadcast live via XAVIER+. The baseball and lacrosse broadcasts will be available through a subscription on GoXavier.com.
All 27 home spring sporting events for baseball and lacrosse will be broadcast on either ESPN+ or XAVIER+ .

XAVIER+ Subscription Plans:

Per Game: $10
Spring Season: $120 (includes all 17 games)
Lacrosse Season Pass: $40 (includes all five games)
Baseball Season Pass: $100 (includes all 12 games)
Baseball Weekend Series Pass: $25 (includes all three games in a weekend series vs. St. John's or Creighton)

All purchases are subject to the customer's state sales tax.

A subscription to ESPN+ is required to view the 10 baseball and lacrosse broadcasts. An ESPN+ subscription will also include a number of road baseball and lacrosse contests (determined by the host institution).
A detailed broadcasting list of each home and away baseball and lacrosse contest is available on the sport specific schedule pages at GoXavier.com.

PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST

Connor Misch (1B) was selected as the Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year, as voted on by the league's coaches.
Misch also earned a spot on the Preseason All-BIG EAST Team, joined on the preseason all-league squad by Clay Burdette and Ryan Piech.
Connor Misch, a senior from Dyer, Ind., was selected as the Preseason Player of the Year and was the league's unanimous preseason pick at first base after earning a spot on the All-BIG EAST First Team following the 2025 season. Misch started in all 59 games last season, with a .332 average at the plate, best among Xavier's returning players. He led the team with 65 hits, and had 44 walks for the season, to lead the Musketeers with a .485 on-base percentage. Misch drove in a team-high 50 RBI, and scored 42 runs
In conference play, Misch led the league with a .448 average at the plate through 21 games. Of his 65 hits for the season, 30 came against BIG EAST opponents, including three of his four home runs. Misch, who also led the conference with a .581 on-base percentage in BIG EAST play, drove in a team-high 25 RBI during the BIG EAST regular season.
Misch has also earned a spot on the 2025 Preseason All-BIG EAST Team and the 2024 All-BIG EAST Second Team during his Xavier career.
Clay Burdette, a junior outfielder, earned a Preseason All-BIG EAST selection after playing in 56 games for the Musketeers last season, making 52 starts, and posting a .292 average at the plate overall. Among his 59 hits were 23 for extra bases, including a team-leading 13 home runs, to lead Xavier with a .540 slugging percentage. Burdette's 44 RBI from last season trail only Misch among returning Musketeers, while his 46 runs scored lead the returnees for Xavier.
In BIG EAST regular season play, Burdette started in all 21 games, finishing with a .325 average at the plate in conference play. The native of Cincinnati collected 25 hits, got aboard with 12 walks, drove in 25 RBI, and scored 18 runs against league opponents.
Ryan Piech, a right-handed pitcher from Aurora, Ohio, earned a Preseason All-BIG EAST selection as a starting pitcher after earning All-BIG EAST Second Team honors last season. Piech's all-league selection followed a 2025 season where he made team-high 14 starts, led the Musketeers with 65 strikeouts in 59.2 innings of work, and held opposing batters to a .182 average at the plate, best among Xavier's qualified pitchers.
Piech made six starts in league play, posting a 2.60 ERA through 27.2 innings of work, the best among the Musketeers and fourth-best among qualified pitchers in the BIG EAST. He only allowed eight earned runs and collected 31 strikeouts in the conference regular season. In BIG EAST play, Piech held opposing batters to a .135 average at the plate, best among qualifying pitchers in the conference.

XAVIER VS. CREIGHTON AT GABP

Xavier will host the series opener against Creighton on Thursday, May 14, at Great American Ball Park following the Cincinnati Reds game against the Washington Nationals.
The Reds and the Nationals are scheduled to begin at 12:40 p.m. with the game between the Musketeers and the Bluejays starting approximately 30-45 minutes following its conclusion.
The game at Great American Ball Park begins a three-game series with the Bluejays, with the remainder of the series running through Saturday, May 16, at Xavier's Hayden Field.

BIG (EAST) SUCCESS

In 2025, Xavier made its ninth appearance in the four-team BIG EAST Tournament since joining the conference, including earning a spot in the event in every season it has been held since 2019.
Xavier advanced to the conference championship series seven times in the Musketeers' nine trips to the league tournament, claiming the tournament championship four times (2014, 2016, 2017, 2023) and finishing runners-up three times (2019, 2021, 2022). Xavier also won the regular season title in 2016.

XU TO HOST THE LEAGUE TOURNAMENT

The 2026 BIG EAST Baseball Championship presented by Jeep will be co-hosted by Xavier baseball at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio, in the week leading up to Memorial Day Weekend.
The four-team tournament opens on Wednesday, May 20, 2026 and is scheduled to run through Saturday, May 23, 2026.
The BIG EAST announced in 2023 that Prasco Park would extend the partnership, which began in 2018, with Xavier remaining the co-host of the annual postseason tournament through 2028.

BIG EAST PRESEASON POLL

Preseason Player of the Year
Connor Misch, 1B, Sr., Xavier

Preseason Pitcher of the Year
Steven Svenson, RHP, So., Seton Hall

Preseason All-BIG EAST Team *
Sean Finn, RP, Jr., UConn
Tyler Minick, OF, Jr., UConn
Rob Rispoli, SS, R-So., UConn
Connor Capece, C, Jr., Creighton ^
Wilson Magers, SP, So., Creighton ^
JT Raab, SP, Gr., Georgetown ^
Jon LeGrande, OF, Jr., St. John's ^
Shaun McMillan, 2B/DH, So., St. John's
Jayder Raifstanger, 3B, Jr., St. John's ^
John Downing, RP, Sr., Seton Hall
Steven Svenson, SP, So., Seton Hall
Clay Burdette, OF, Jr., Xavier
Connor Misch, 1B, Sr., Xavier ^
Ryan Piech, SP, Jr., Xavier

^ - Unanimous Selection
* - due to a tie in voting, there are extra members on the preseason all-conference team.

BIG EAST Baseball Preseason Poll
First place votes in ( )
1. UConn (5) - 46
2. Creighton (3) - 43
3. Xavier - 37
4. St. John's - 32
5. Seton Hall - 26
6. Villanova - 19
7. Georgetown - 13
8. Butler - 8