TicketsBearcats Rally For Win Over TCU
UC scores late for 4-3 win
Contact: Shawn Sell
5/7/2005
Josh Kay got his seventh save of the year on Saturday vs. TCU. |
CINCINNATI, Ohio---Cincinnati scored the winning runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and Josh Kay slammed the door on TCU?s comeback as the Bearcats scored a 4-3 win over the Horned Frogs in Conference USA baseball action on Saturday.
Kay worked out of a seventh inning jam and kept TCU scoreless for three innings, recording his seventh save of the year. Kay came into pitch in relief of winning pitcher Tony Maynard who gave the Bearcats another solid outing. Maynard, who improves to 6-3 on the year, worked six innings, allowing three runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
The victory improves the Bearcats 2005 record to 21-24 overall and 8-14 in C-USA play. TCU falls to two games back of conference leader Tulane at 16-7 in the league and hold a 33-15 overall record.
Jim Olds led the Bearcats with three hits, but it was pinch-hitter Jack Nelson that drove home the winning run in the sixth. Nelson, who has struggled for most of 2005, plated LaFringe Hayes with an RBI groundout in the decisive inning. Logan Parker added a pair of hits for UC.
Shelby Ford and Austin Adams each had two hits apiece for the Frogs, while J.J. Estrada recorded two RBI. Starting pitcher Brad Furnish (5-4) was hit with the defeat, leaving after five-plus innings of action.
TCU jumped on the board in the first inning, getting an RBI single by Matt McQuirk that brought in Ford to score. UC matched the tally in the last of the second when Olds grounded an RBI single through the right side that plated Pat LeMasters.
The visitors answered right back however, going up 3-1 in the top of the third. With one out, Chad Huffman was hit by a pitch, just before a single by Keith Conlon. Maynard bounced back to strike out McQuirk, but Estrada blasted a two-run double to left to untie the game.
Cincinnati again came back, cutting the deficit to one on Jon DeLuca?s sacrifice fly in the third inning. On the mound, Maynard limited TCU to just one walk over his last three innings. UC had a chance in the fourth, leaving the bases loaded, for three of the 13 runners the squad stranded on the day.
In the sixth inning, Olds led off with his third single of the day, bringing Hayes to the plate. The latter attempted to bunt Olds to second, tapping a ball back to Furnish but his throw to second was high and all hands were safe. Sam Demel then replaced Furnish and was greeted by a Mark Muscenti single through the left side that loaded the bases. Mark Haske tied the game with a sacrifice fly and both runners moved up on the throw to the plate. Parker was then intentionally walked and Nelson pinch hit for Brian Szarmach, ultimately driving in the game-winning run.
Kay got off to a shaky start in the seventh, allowing a Stuart Musslewhite single and a double by Ford. But the UC closer settled down, getting Huffman to fly out and sandwiching a pair of strikeouts around an intentional walk to McQuirk.
?Our guys just gave a gritty team performance today,? said Bearcat head coach Brian Cleary. ?I thought for the first time in awhile, we put together a complete game and I hope that continues. We just found a way to score enough runs to get the win today.?
The rubber match of the weekend series takes place on Sunday, beginning at 1 p.m. Sean Munninghoff takes the mound for Cincinnati, facing TCU?s Tim McGough.