TicketsBearcats Come Up Short Again At Louisville
UC drops ninth straight
Contact: Shawn Sell
3/28/2004
Aaron Moll pitched 7.1 innings Sunday at Louisville, while also homering at the plate. |
LOUISVILLE, Ky.---Cincinnati rallied for the second day in a row, but Louisville once again had an answer as the Cardinals finished off a sweep of a Conference USA series with a 7-4 win on Sunday afternoon at Cardinal Stadium.
Trailing 4-1 heading into the seventh inning, the Bearcats rallied to tie the game at four, only to see Louisville score twice in the bottom of the inning and once more in the eighth to pull out the triumph. U of L improves to 14-9 and 5-1 in C-USA with the win, while the Bearcats are now 3-20 and 0-6 in league play.
Aaron Moll gave the Bearcats a gutsy pitching performance, working into the eighth inning in his second start of the week, but took the loss to fall to 0-2 on the year. The senior, who doubles as the Bearcats? starting centerfielder, allowed all seven runs on nine hits, while blasting a home run of his own in the fourth inning.
Moll was one of four Bearcat players with multiple hits, as UC registered its fifth double-digit hit performance in the last seven games. Mark Muscenti continued his move out of a near season-long hitting slump, with three hits, including a pair of doubles. Jack Nelson and Erik Eitel added two hits apiece, while Drew Saylor notched his second home run of the year.
Cincinnati fell behind early, as Louisville put two runs on the board in the second. Logan Johnson walked to lead off the inning then moved to second on a wild pitch. Ryan McKinnon brought home the first run of the day with a ground rule double to right and later scored on an Isaiah Howes sacrifice fly.
Moll put UC on the board with a long blast to left center in the fourth, but UC was down 4-1 after the Cardinals scored twice in the sixth. The first run came in on a bases loaded walk, while U of L freshman Daniel Burton drove home his ninth run of the series with a run-scoring single.
The Bearcats drew to a four-all tie with a big, three-run seventh. With one out, Saylor deposited a ball into UC?s bullpen in deep left field with his second long ball of the year. The Bearcats then brought home their final two runs of the day with four straight singles, with Muscenti and pinch hitter Elliot Salcedo picking up RBI along the way.
But U of L went ahead to stay in the eighth, getting runs on a sacrifice fly by Mark Jurich and a run-scoring fielder?s choice by Johnson. Louisville got its final tally of the day in the eighth when Danny Plasencia singled home Burton.
Louisville was paced at the plate by Jurich, Burton and Plascenia with two hits apiece. Skylar Meade got the win to improve to 3-0 with 0.2 innings of relief. Brian Halford picked up his second save of the series and fourth of the year by retiring the final two batters of the game.
The Bearcats will now try to snap their nine-game losing streak, the longest in the program since 1998, with a Wednesday trip to Xavier. First pitch from Hayden Field is set for 3 p.m.