College Baseball in Ohio – February 16th, 2026 – Opening Weekend

Cincinnati 2-1 (0-0 in the Big 12)

The Bearcats got their season started right in the state of Alabama. They beat Jacksonville State on Friday, 11-5. UC defeated the Gamecocks again on Saturday, 6-5. Sunday, the Cincinnati bats went quiet, as Jacksonville State won in a 1-0 shutout. The highlight of the series was UC second baseman Jackson Smith’s three-run home run that provided the deciding scores in their 6-5 victory on Saturday. Cincinnati will stay in the Yellowhammer State this week. UC will take on #9 Auburn tomorrow, and then they will have four games over the weekend against UAB, starting on Thursday.

Xavier 2-1 (0-0 in the Big East)

The Musketeers got their season off on the right foot, winning a series against East Carolina. The X-Men beat the Pirates on Friday, 4-3, and on Saturday, 9-3. ECU, however, foiled the Muskies’ attempts for a sweep on Sunday, with a 12-5 victory. The Xavier bats were alive and well in Greenville, North Carolina, over the weekend as they hit six home runs and had 15 runs batted in as a team. Xavier will return to the tri-state this week and play at Louisville tomorrow. They’ll then head into SEC country when they travel to Arkansas for a series this weekend.

Dayton 1-2 (0-0 in the Atlantic 10)

The Flyers had a bit of a stalled start in their series against Lipscomb to open the 2026 season. Dayton lost 11-6 on Friday, won 3-1 on Valentine’s Day, and fell 9-6 on Sunday in the series in Nashville, Tennessee. The Flyers will hope a return to this side of the Ohio River will push their engine to full throttle. Dayton will host Eastern Kentucky for four games this week in its home opener. The series begins on Thursday. The Flyers will be in Ohio for their next 14 games, only leaving the Buckeye State again for a March 13^th series against St. Louis.

Wright State 1-2 (0-0 in the Horizon League)

The Raiders had the unenviable task of starting their 2026 season on the road in Athens, Georgia. Wright State took on the 14th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the heart of SEC country. It was an ugly start for WSU, as they took some heavy punches with their 13-1 loss on Friday and their 9-0 loss on Saturday. Sunday, however, started out more favorably for the Raiders as they took a 3-0 lead in the top of the 4 ^th inning. Georgia responded and cut it to a 3-2 with two runs of their own in the bottom of the 4^th. Wright State answered Georgia in the top of the fifth inning, again scoring three runs. JP Peltier’s two-run home run capped the Raiders’ scoring, and they’d go on to win 6-3. Staying in the South, Wright State will play a weekend series against the Charlotte 49ers.

Youngstown State 0-3 (0-0 in the Horizon League)

YSU opened the season on the road against #9 Auburn. The Penguins battled hard in their first two games in Auburn, Alabama. They lost on Friday and Saturday by the same score of 2-1. The dam burst, though, on Sunday when the Penguins were gobbled up by the orca that Auburn baseball played like. Auburn killed YSU, 17-2 on Sunday, completing their sweep of the Penguins. There’s no rest for the weary as Youngstown State will head to Oregon for a four-game series that begins on Thursday. There was a silver lining for the Penguins.

Ohio 1-2 (0-0 in the MAC)

The Bobcats’ 2026 season got off to a hairy start. Ohio had a three-game series at a neutral location against the Murray State Racers. On Friday, they got crushed, 13-4. Saturday was a more even game, but the Bobcats still fell, 11-8. Sunday was a Southern Illinois shootout that Ohio came out on top of with a 15-13 victory. Junior left fielder Cameron Boyd was the star of the weekend for Ohio. Boyd had 7 hits on 15 at-bats, including 3 doubles and 2 home runs. He drove in 5 runs and scored 6 more himself for the Bobcats. Ohio will stay away from Athens this weekend as the play on the road at Tennessee Tech.

Kent State 3-0 (0-0 in the MAC)

Kent State opened the season with a series sweep of Southeastern Louisiana. Going 3-0 and scoring 33 runs and outscoring the opposition by 20 to start your season is good for any baseball team, and Kent State did it against a team that went 38-16 in 2025. The Golden Flashes were led by Sawyer Solitaria, their sophomore right fielder. Solitaria had 8 hits in 14 at-bats, 3 of them home runs, and scored 6 runs for Kent State! The Golden Flashes needed those three wins as they’ll play at #2 LSU tonight, and then head to Knoxville, Tennessee, to take on the #13 Volunteers for their weekend series.

Akron 2-2 (0-0 in the MAC)

The Zips split a four-game series with Presbyterian in their opening weekend. They lost their first two games of a doubleheader on Friday, 8-6 in both contests. Akron bounced back strongly in the second doubleheader on Saturday. They won the early game, 8-7, and dominated in the final game of the series, 9-2. Like their northeast Ohio brethren, Kent State, Akron was also led by a super sophomore right fielder. Brody Chrisman had 7 hits on 16 at-bats, which had him hit 2 doubles, 3 home runs, and score 4 runs for the Zips. This weekend, they’ll play Western Illinois in a three-game, neutral-site series in Millington, Tennessee, starting on Friday.

Miami (Ohio) 3-0 (0-0 in the MAC)

The defending MAC Champions got their title defense started with a three-game series sweep of Southern University. The basketball RedHawks aren’t the only undefeated team in Oxford, Ohio, after the sweep. Miami won emphatically in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On Friday, they won 11-1, on Saturday, 10-3, and on Sunday, 15-2. Senior first baseman Evan Appelwick was a rock star for the RedHawks against Southern. He had 5 hits on 10 at-bats, including 3 home runs, and 8 runs-batted-in. His slugging percentage in this early season is a whopping 1.400. The RedHawks will stay in the South this week as they play in Port Charlotte, Florida, where they’ll play Brown and Indiana State on Friday, UMass-Lowell on Saturday, and Illinois State on Sunday.

Toledo 1-2 (0-0 in the MAC)

The Rockets opened their season with an 8-6 win over Memphis in the Tigers’ home ballpark in Tennessee. Toledo would lose game two on Saturday, 5-4, and game three on Sunday, 6-4. The Rockets won’t accept any moral victories, but keeping each contest competitive while on the road should help them keep the perspective that they are a good team who will always play hard. They’ll stay in the South this weekend, and they’ll head to Alabama to take on Jacksonville State.

Bowling Green 0-3 (0-0 in the MAC)

No team in Ohio, maybe in the nation, had a rougher start than the Bowling Green Falcons. It was expected to be tough for them on the road at #5 Georgia Tech, but this weekend was brutal. On Friday, they fell 11-5. Saturday was Bowling Green’s own St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Georgia Tech tuned up the Flacons by a horrific score of 27-4. Sunday was another rout, though not as bad as Saturday, as they fell 12-2. Not much goes right when you start 0-3, give up 50 runs, and are outscored 50-11.

Nick Swisher-Mike Schmidt Player of the Week

Miami’s Evan Appelwick, Akron’s Brody Chrisman, Kent State’s Sawyer Solitaria, and Ohio’s Cameron Boyd all had fantastic weeks for their teams. Solitaria and Appelwick led their teams to perfect starts to the season, and Solitaria had more hits in more at-bats. That’s why I went with Sawyer Solitaria of Kent State for the player of the week. Solitaria had 8 hits in 14 at-bats, 3 homers, and scored 6 times for his Golden Flashes.