TicketsMarch 11, 2007
CINCINNATI, Ohio---The University of Cincinnati baseball team found a sunny Sunday afternoon at Marge Schott Stadium to its liking as the Bearcats wrapped up a three-game sweep of Cleveland State with a 9-3 victory. The win pushes UC's record over .500 for the first time this season at 8-7.
The Bearcats jumped to a 6-0 lead in the game and then never looked back, adding three late runs for the final six-run cushion. A total of six hurlers took to the mound for UC, including winning pitcher Adam Calez (1-0) who tossed three shutout innings with four strikeouts.
The offensive production was a team effort as all but one starter picked up at least one hit. Josh Harrison, Neall French and Brian Szarmach all had two apiece, with the latter two also driving in a pair of runs each.
Cincinnati started its work in the second, scoring twice to chase Vikings' starter Brian Long. French led the inning off with a double and scored two batters later on an RBI single by freshman Michael Earley. After a walk to Dustin Alvey loaded the bases, Ryan Baker was plunked with a Long offering to force in the second run of the day.
The Bearcats went on to blow the game open with three runs in the fourth and a single marker in the fifth. The three-run fourth saw all nine UC hitters bat as the hosts took advantage of a costly two-out error by Matt Madrid. Tony Campana scored on the error and Szarmach would follow later with a two-RBI single to push the Bearcats' lead to 5-0. A walk to French with the bases loaded in the fifth extended the UC lead one run further.
After Calez departed, Cleveland State (2-10) finally broke through with a run in the seventh as Ryan Baechel doubled home John Westra. The Vikings got their final two runs in the eighth on a bases loaded hit by pitch and a long sac fly by Josh Geric. On the fly ball, Campana made a tremendous running catch after covering a great deal of ground in deep left center field.
UC gave itself some more breathing room with a Harrison run-scoring single and a French RBI double in the seventh and added an Alvey RBI single in the eighth.
Baechel led the Vikings offense with two hits and an RBI. Long took the loss after yielding two runs and three hits in just 1.1 innings of work.
The Bearcats will now take a break for finals week at UC, not returning to the diamond until Friday. Cincinnati will open a three-game set with Chicago State that day, with first pitch set for 4 p.m.