TicketsBearcats Drop Finale At Memphis
Muscenti breaks school hit by pitch record
Contact: Shawn Sell
5/16/2004
Mark Muscenti broke the school career hit by pitch record in Sunday's loss to Memphis. |
MEMPHIS, Tenn.?Cincinnati rallied for four runs in the seventh inning, but Memphis answered with three in its half of the inning en route to a 5-4 win over the Bearcats on Sunday at Nat Buring Stadium. The win clinched a spot in the Conference USA for Memphis and finished off a three-game sweep of the Bearcats.
Trailing 2-0 in the seventh inning, UC batted around, scoring four runs to take a two-run advantage. Memphis answered right back, though scoring three runs against Tony Maynard to take the lead for good. Memphis improves to 25-25 overall and 13-13 in C-USA play with the win, while Cincinnati is now 13-38 and 5-22 in C-USA.
Cincinnati fell behind early despite an outstanding pitching performance from Jim Olds. Memphis got its first run in the third when seldom used Memphis senior James Rouse singled home Jason Payne for the day?s first run. The Tigers tacked on another in the sixth when Adam Amar ripped a double to the right center field gap that brought Adam Scott around to score from first.
That set the stage for UC?s big seventh inning that started with a Brian Dill single to right. Erik Eitel was then hit by a pitch, bringing pinch hitter Matt Ogden to the plate. Ogden bunted a ball to third that Rouse booted, allowing all hands to be safe and loading the bases for Mark Muscenti. Muscenti came up big as he grounded a single through the left side. Brandon Rowan replaced Corey Kines on the mound and gave up back-to-back singles to pinch hitter Elliot Salcedo and Jack Nelson that made it a 3-3 game. UC went ahead on the next batter as Steve Pickerell hit a sacrifice fly to the wall in left that brought Muscenti home with the go ahead run.
The bottom of the seventh didn?t get off to a good start for the Bearcats as Michael Lewis popped his fifth home run of the season to left center. Chad House then reached on an infield single and Rouse was hit by a pitch. Maynard struck out Brent Dlugach, but threw a wild pitch during the at-bat to move the runners to second and third. Kurt Welch then retied the game with an RBI groundout and Ryan Martin?s single up the middle put the Tigers ahead to stay.
As mentioned, Olds was outstanding in his third career start on the mound, despite getting a no-decision. The junior worked 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on four hits, with one walk and three strikeouts. Maynard (2-6) absorbed the loss for UC, his second of the weekend, after allowing three runs and four hits in 2.1 innings. Michael Novarese pitched three hitless innings to score the win and improve to 2-2 on the year for Memphis.
Muscenti was the only Bearcat with two hits, while Lewis paced the Tigers as the only multi-hit batter, also with two. Muscenti also made history with a pair of hit by pitches as he topped Kevin Youkilis? school record for career hit by pitch with 36.
Bill Edwards gave Memphis another solid starting pitching performance, throwing six shutout innings, allowing two hits, with six strikeouts and four walks.
The Bearcats will wrap up their non-conference schedule on Tuesday traveling to Akron for a 6 p.m. contest. That will lead up to the much anticipated opening of the UC Baseball Stadium for the Bearcats? season-finale series with UAB starting on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.