TicketsBearcats Survive Thriller At Duke
DeLuca, Nelson each collect three hits, three RBI
Contact: Shawn Sell
2/19/2005
Jon DeLuca had three hits and three RBI in Saturday's win at Duke. |
DURHAM, N.C.---Cincinnati survived a ninth-inning Duke comeback that came up just short as the Bearcats won for the second time in two days in a wild 14-13 non-conference game on Saturday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field. The victory clinches the series win for the Bearcats, giving them their first non-conference series triumph since 2002.
Trailing 14-7 heading into the ninth inning, Duke rallied for six runs, four coming on a dramatic two-out grand slam by Eric Baumann that cut the Cincinnati lead to just one. But Kyle Markle struck out pinch-hitter Ron Causey to preserve the win for the Bearcats. UC improves to 2-3 on the year, while Duke has now last three in a row to fall to 4-4 on the year.
Bryan Wood earned his first career win, pitching 4.1 innings before leaving with one out in the ninth inning. Duke starter David Torcise took the loss after allowing six runs on seven hits in just three innings.
Jon DeLuca and Jack Nelson paced the Bearcat offense with three hits and three RBI apiece. Mark Muscenti drove in four runs on the day, while Logan Parker hit his second home run of the season. Baumann led Duke with four RBI, while J.J. Koterba, a former high school teammate of DeLuca?s, added three hits.
?Our bats really came alive today and we did a good job of playing hard all game,? said Bearcat head coach Brian Cleary. ?We didn?t pitch as well as we are capable, but we battled until the end and got the win. Tomorrow is a big day and hopefully we can play well and get the sweep.?
Cincinnati jumped on Duke early, scoring twice in the first inning and going up 6-1 by the end of three innings of play. UC got its two first inning runs on back-to-back RBI singles by DeLuca and Nelson. In the third frame, Nelson picked up his second RBI single of the day, while Muscenti cleared the bases with a three-run double to right.
After Duke cut the Bearcat advantage to 6-3 in the bottom of the fourth, Cincinnati exploded for six unearned runs in the top of the fifth. UC took advantage of two Blue Devil errors in the frame to push ahead by a 12-3 score. DeLuca highlighted the outburst with a two-run single, while Nelson and LaFringe Hayes each provided run scoring singles.
The Blue Devils touched up Wood for four runs in the junior?s first inning of work, two coming on a double by Cody Wheeler. UC took a seven-run advantage in its half of the seven when Parker drove a Daniel Mangiapani offering over the wall down the right field line with a runner on.
In the ninth, Wood allowed the first three hitters of the inning to reach base, before coming back to strike out Wheeler. UC then elected to lift Wood in favor of the senior Markle. Brett Bartles greeted Markle with a run-scoring single, before Jimmy Gallagher drew a bases loaded walk that made it a 14-9 ball game. That brought Baumann to the plate and the Blue Devil sophomore got the home crowd on its feet with his second long ball of the year to deep left. Markle settled down, however, striking out Causey looking to end the game.
The two wins already gathered this weekend give UC its first non-conference series win since the 2002 season. That year, the Bearcats swept Cleveland State on March 8-10 in Cincinnati.
UC will go for a series sweep when its wraps up play at Duke on Sunday. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. The starting pitcher for each team is still yet to be announced.