Scott Googins is Cincinnati’s New Baseball Coach

Less than two weeks after Ty Neal stepped down as head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats Baseball program, the school has found his replacement. Scott Googins was announced as the 28th head coach of the team in a release from UC’s official athletic site on Tuesday.

Googins is crossing enemy lines by coming to UC, as he spent the previous 12 seasons with Xavier. In 2017, the Musketeers went 34-27 and won the Big East Tournament for the second-straight year. They played in the NCAA Regional Finals and happened to employ Big East Player of the Year Rylan Bannon.

UC played Xavier three times this past season, and dropped two of three to the Musketeers while being outscored 24-12. Led by Bannon, the Musketeers slashed .273/.366/.420 during the 2017 campaign, which was a much better offensive performance than the Bearcats, who were hurt by the American Athletic Conference’s worst offense.

In 2016, Googins led the Big East Coaching Staff of the Year and he was also named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 2008. He has 341 career victories as a head coach, with his career beginning in 2006.

Googins previously worked on the staffs of Miami-Ohio and Indiana and helped the Hoosiers win the 1996 Big Ten title.