TicketsBearcats Fall In Second Straight Disappointing Finish
Hayes, Muscenti homer in defeat
Contact: Shawn Sell
2/12/2005
LaFringe Hayes tripled and homered in UC's Saturday loss to Florida Atlantic. |
BOCA RATON, Fla.---For the second time in as many games, No. 28 Florida Atlantic staged a late inning comeback to defeat Cincinnati by a 6-3 score on Saturday afternoon at FAU Stadium.
Trailing 3-2 going into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Owls pushed across four go-ahead runs to steal their second win from the Bearcats in a row. Allen Knight was the winning pitcher for Florida Atlantic, who improves to 2-0 on the year. Mike Foley was saddled with the loss for UC, who is now 0-2 in the young season. Mike McBryde got the last three outs for FAU to record his first save of the year.
The unlikely duo of Mark Muscenti and LaFringe Hayes provided most of the offense for the Bearcats as each homered, coming on consecutive at-bats in the top of the seventh. The blasts were just the second and first of the respective players careers. Hayes also had a triple for the Bearcats.
Wasted opportunities were the story of the day for both teams as FAU left 14 runners on base, compared to nine for UC. The home team left at least one runner on base in each inning and left the bases loaded three times.
The Bearcats went down by a run in the third inning when Brian Lipman scampered home after a wild pitch by UC starting pitcher Kevin Schrader. The Owls would go on to extend their lead an inning later when Tim Mascia lined a single to left that brought home Robbie Widlansky.
After falling behind for the second straight day, the Bearcats again came back to cut the lead in half, getting a run in the sixth on this day. With two out and Jack Nelson on first, Neall French lined a single to left field that skipped past FAU left fielder Jonathon Shapland. The error on the play allowed Nelson to score from first, while French went into second.
An inning later the Bearcat duo of Muscenti and Hayes came up with their back-to-back blasts with one out against FAU reliever Mark Culp. The consecutive homers marked the first time UC had achieved the feat since Jim Olds and Drew Saylor went yard back-to-back on May 15, 2004 at Memphis.
The wheels fell off for the Bearcats in the eighth as two errors and three hits led to four go-ahead runs for the Owls. McBryde led off with a single off of Foley and went to second on a ground ball out. Mascia followed with a walk, paving the way for an RBI single by Lipman. Hutton then reached on an error and was followed by a run-scoring single by Jordan Hafer. Sean Munninghoff replaced Foley on the mound and was greeted with an RBI fielder?s choice by Alex Fonseca. Munninghoff then struck out Chris Akins to end the threat.
?I was pleased with our effort for the second day in a row,? said Bearcat head coach Brian Cleary. ?We had another chance to win late, but we just couldn?t hold on. Again, we played hard and I think we will start to pitch, hit and run better very soon. We need to go out tomorrow and find a way to finish with a win.?
Florida Atlantic, which recorded eight hits on the day, got two each from Mascia, Lipman and Hafer, but recorded no extra-base hits. French and Hayes each collected a pair of hits for UC.
The season-opening series between the two teams concludes on Sunday, with a 1 p.m. first pitch. Senior Jim Olds will get the ball for Cincinnati, being opposed by FAU lefty Chris Salberg.