The Wright State Raiders of Dayton and Fairborn, Ohio (Photo by Wright State Athletics)
UC, Mami, and Wright St. all represented Ohio in the Big Dance
UC, Miami (Ohio), and Wright State all left Ohio for Tennessee to play in the NCAA Tournament.
Cincinnati (33-26, 16-14 in the Big 12)
In the opening game, the Cats took it to Wake Forest. UC opened the NCAA Tournament on Friday in the Knoxville Regional with a big upset, beating the Demon Deacons 11-6.
They couldn’t get by the defending champs after that, though. They gave Tennessee a good game on Saturday, but the Vols were just too much for Cincinnati and won their game 10-6. That set up a rematch with Wake Forest on Sunday. In the elimination game against the Demon Deacons, the Bearcats got down big early. They battled back late with a three-run eighth inning, but it was too much for UC. Wake Forest would win, 10-3
The 2025 Cincinnati Bearcats had a season to be proud of, though. They were appreciated by the Queen City and their fans, and this was shown with something waiting for them to commemorate their team when they got home.
Miami (Ohio) (35-23, 23-7 in the MAC)
Miami had a hard draw, traveling to Knoxville to take on the reigning and defending national champion Tennessee Vols on Rocky Top. Evan Appelwick was the star for the RedHawks in this tournament.
They lost to the Vols, 9-2, on Friday.
The RedHawks went out determined to go down swinging against Wake Forest in the elimination game on Saturday.
Miami would score 13 runs on 11 hits against the Demon Deacons. Down five in the bottom of the ninth, the RedHawks rallied furiously. Alas, it wasn’t quite enough, and they came up one run short.
The RedHawks have a lot to hold their heads up high about in 2025. They were MAC regular season and tournament champions, and their 23 conference wins are a program record and beat the old one by three games.
Wright State (40-21, 25-5 in the Horizon League)
While Miami and UC gave good showings and went out fighting, Wright State had the greatest success of any Ohio team. In their first game against host Vanderbilt in the Nashville Regional, the Raiders built a 3-0 lead that they carried into the seventh inning before Vanderbilt rallied for a 4-3 win.
Friday’s loss put Wright State up against Eastern Tennessee State on Saturday afternoon. The Raiders would eliminate ETSU with a 7-5 victory. This would set up a winner-take-all rematch between the #1 seed, the Vanderbilt Commodores, for Saturday night.
Vandy had eaten a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Louisville earlier that day and was facing a Wright State team that had pushed them to the limit the day before. The Raiders would again build a big lead earlier and struggle to protect it. Leading 5-1 after three innings, Wright State would maintain that lead until the ninth inning. Vanderbilt would close the gap to one run before Wright State would end the rally, win 5-4, and advance to the regional final against Louisville on Sunday!
In the Nashville Regional Final against Louisville, the Raiders’ bats went cold, and the Cardinals’ pitching got hot. In 29 at-bats for Wright State, they got only two hits and reached base only five times in the whole game. They also struck out 15 times against Louisville’s on-fire pitching. Louisville would eliminate the Raiders to advance to the Super Regionals, just like they did in 2016.
2025 was another great chapter added to the storied program that is Wright State Raiders Baseball. They continued dominating the Horizon League again. This was the tenth time WSU has made it to the NCAA Regionals in the last 20 seasons. This was their first regional appearance with a win and their first time advancing to the regional final since 2016. 2025 was also the fourth time that they won 40 or more games in a season while in Division I. The Raiders were the best college baseball team in Ohio in 2025.
Ohio State, Xavier, Dayton, Youngstown State, Ohio, Kent State, Akron, Toledo, and Bowling Green had all concluded their seasons before this week.
