TicketsBearcats Stumble Against Ball State
UC records season-high 13 hits in loss
Contact: Shawn Sell
3/13/2004
Aaron Moll had a double and a triple in Saturday's loss to Ball State. |
LOUISVILLE, Ky.---Ball State scored nine runs in the final three innings to overcome a 4-3 deficit and hand Cincinnati its fifth straight loss, 12-5 on Saturday at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville. The Bearcats pounded out a season-high 13 hits in the defeat, but fall to 2-11 on the year.
Five UC players recorded two hits as the Bearcats registered six extra-base hits on the day. Pat LeMasters ripped two doubles, while Aaron Moll had a double and a triple for UC. Jack Nelson, Drew Saylor and Steve Pickerell each added two hits apiece.
Ball State, who improves to 5-4 with the victory, got 12 hits, including four by Kenny Bargfeldt. Kyle Dygert drove in four runs, three coming on his third home run of the season.
?I thought we did a much better job of swinging the bats today,? said Bearcat head coach Brian Cleary. ?I was very pleased with that and I hope that we have started to turn the corner offensively. But I was disappointed with the defense and even some things that happened that don?t show up in the box score. I think if we start swinging the bats like that, we will typically score more runs than we did today. But I think we saw some progress today.?
Things got off to a rocky start for the Bearcats, as starting pitcher Justin Minges (0-3) was touched for three runs in the first inning. Mike Sullivan and Bargfeldt led off with back-to-back singles, before Marc Franz scored both runners with a double to left center. Dygert?s sacrifice fly later in the inning plated Franz.
Minges settled down after the first inning, retiring 12 of 13 batters through the beginning of the sixth. The Bearcat offense came solidly to life in the fifth, as eight batters came to the plate and UC banged on five hits to score three runs. LeMasters, subbing for an injured Jon DeLuca had the big hit of the inning when he ripped a two-run double down the left field line that scored Pickerell and Mark Muscenti. Nelson capped the inning?s scoring with an RBI single that brought LeMasters home.
The Bearcats took the lead in the top half of the fifth when Moll blasted a triple over centerfielder Sullivan?s head that brought Pickerell home from second. The wheels fell off for Minges in the sixth, though as Brad Miller retied the game with an RBI single to left. Dygert then chased Minges in favor of Josh Kay with his three-run blast to right.
Ball State added two more in seventh on a Bargfeldt RBI single and Franz?s sacrifice fly. The Cardinals tacked three more on the board in the eighth off of Chase Lampl, with all of the runs coming on a pair of throwing errors by the freshman hurler.
Cardinal starter Joe Ness (2-0) picked up the win, leaving after six innings and allowing four runs on 10 hits, with one strikeout. Jeff Michael came out of the bullpen for the final three innings to earn his first save of the season.
The Bearcats return to action with a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. at Cardinal Stadium. UC will face Ball State in game one of the twinbill with Brian St. Jean getting the start for the Bearcats. Cincinnati will square off with Louisville in the nightcap, with an undetermined pitcher starting for the Bearcats.