TicketsMay 6, 2008
SETTING THE SCENE: The University of Cincinnati will seek its second 30-victory baseball campaign in the last three seasons when the Bearcats take to the diamond against the College of Mount St. Joseph on Tuesday evening (May 6). Action at Marge Schott Stadium is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. The contest will serve as a make-up game for the Bearcats who lost all three scheduled games against Cleveland State earlier this year. UC is coming off a solid weekend that saw it win two of three against Rutgers to maintain third place in the BIG EAST at 14-7, while holding an overall mark of 29-18. Mount St. Joseph, winners of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Regular Season title, enters the game at 24-15. The Lions will be tuning up for the HCAC Tournament to be held at Marge Schott Stadium, later this week.
UP NEXT: The Bearcats will wrap up the road portion of their BIG EAST schedule, traveling to South Orange, N.J. to take on Seton Hall this weekend (May 9-11). The series figures to go a long way in determining BIG EAST Championship seeding as the Bearcats enter the weekend in third place in the league standings, just one-game ahead of a fourth place tie between the Pirates (27-17, 13-8 BIG EAST) and Louisville.
SCOUTING THE LIONS: The Lions comes to Marge Schott Stadium fresh off of clinching the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Confernence Regular Season Championship with a win over Defiance last weekend. Mount St. Joseph's roster is made up of prodominately local products as all but two players hail from the Greater Cincinnati area. Freshman Ben Stroube is the Mount's top hitter, holding a .388 average, while Ryan Rodriguez adds a team-leading five homers and Nick Weimer paces the club with 38 RBI. Freshman T.C. Wethington (1-3, 8.31 ERA) will start on the mound for the Lions.
NOTING THE BEARCATS:
- Cincinnati is listed in third place in the current BIG EAST Conference race at 14-7.
- Mike Spina has raised his stock as the top hitter on the squad, batting .362, with 12 home runs and 55 RBI. In the BIG EAST, Spina ranks second in both homers and RBI and is 12th in hitting.
- Tony Campana, Jamel Scott and Josh Harrison are ranked No. 1, 2 and 3 in the BIG EAST in the stolen base department. Campana has been safe on 37-of-46 tries, while Scott owns 29 thefts on 36 attempts and Harrison is 22 of 29. The trio helps UC lead the BIG EAST with 105 stolen bases.
HARRISON RIDING HIGH: Josh Harrison has raised his batting average nearly 60 points, from .274 to .354 by hitting a torrid 33-of-65 (.508) over his last 16 games. The junior enters the week, riding a season-best 10-game hit streak that includes eight multi-hit games. He shares the team lead with 22 multiple-game hits, including seven three-hit performances and is among the BIG EAST leaders in runs, hits, doubles, total bases and stolen bases.
SPINA HITS HIS STRIDE: After seeing his average dip to .256 early in the month, Mike Spina concluded April on a terror. For the month, Spina hit at a .432 clip, belting six doubles and nine home runs, while driving in 32 runs. In 22 games in the month, Spina collected at least one hit in all but three of the contests, posting 13 multi-hit games along the way. Spina hasn't let up as the calendar flipped over, hitting .333 with a homer and six RBI after three games in May.
OFF AND RUNNING: The Bearcats' running game was one of the nation's best last year and was listed 11th nationally last week. The Bearcats have reached safely on 2.23 stolen bases per game and have made good on 105-of-134 stolen base attempts (.784) this season. The Bearcats swiped 130 bases in 2007, ranking as the highest total ever by a UC team. This year's squads boasts a fourth-place ranking on UC's single season team list.
RECORD SETTING THIEF: An offensive catalyst at the top of the lineup, Tony Campana set a Cincinnati single-season record with 60 stolen bases as a junior. Campana finished as the NCAA leader in steals at better than one stolen base per game. In his first year with the Bearcats, he came up one stolen base short of equaling the program's career record of 61. Already this season Campana eclipsed the mark for career stolen bases and his 37 thefts this season give him 97 career steals and counting.
STAFF ACE: In 2007, Dan Osterbrock was one of the BIG EAST's best hurlers posting a 9-1 record. Owning a 6-2 record and a 3.50 ERA, the Cincinnati native has been on a roll of late, winning five straight decisions, including three complete games. The lefty has show masterful control, striking out 55 this year against only nine walks in 72 innings.\
OSTERBROCK LIKES TO FINISH WHAT HE STARTED: Lefthander Dan Osterbrock has made a habit of finishing BIG EAST Conference games, with three complete games in his last six outings. Although he did not record a strikeout, the Cincinnati native pitched a complete game, allowing three runs on six hits in a 5-3 win at Notre Dame. Two weeks later, the lefty did it again, striking out eight over nine innings to garner a 6-3 victory against Pittsburgh. Osterbrock tossed a complete game in his last outing, an 11-2 triumph at Louisville. Osterbrock tossed five complete games a year ago and currently boasts eight career complete games.
SPEEDY SCOTT: After hitting the Bearcats' first home run of 2008 at Miami (FL), Jamel Scott has shown plenty of speed. UC's swift sophomore trails only teammate Tony Campana in the BIG EAST Conference in stolen bases, having made good on 29-of-36 attempts this season. Scott started the campaign with a string of 14 consecutive steals before being caught. The Bearcats' No. 2 hitter, Scott boasts a .297 average and a .374 on-base percentage.
LEAD-OFF TERROR: Tony Campana continues to be a big impact at the top of the Bearcats' lineup, while patrolling center field in every game since transferring to Cincinnati. A spark plug at the top of the order, Campana is hitting .325 and is 37-of-46 in stolen base attempts this year.
BULLPEN ANCHOR: Junior Jake Geglein has blossomed into the stopper in the Bearcats' bullpen, enjoying a phenomenal season in his new role. The Cincinnati native has appeared in a team-best 20 games and holds a 3-0 record with a 2.60 ERA and seven saves. Geglein has held opponents scoreless in 14 of his 20 outings this year and has 31 strikesouts in 34.2 innings of work. He is also making a name for himself in UC history, tying for fourth on the single season list with his seven saves and holding a tie for fifth with nine career saves.
HARRISON A PERFECT `10': Cincinnati second baseman Josh Harrison was a perfect 10-for-10 at the plate in the three-game set at Louisville and posted a 13-for-21 effort (.619) at the plate in six games last week to earn BIG EAST Player of the Week honors. Harrison collected eight runs scored and five RBIs, as UC went 3-3 last week. The junior infielder was successful on 6-of-7 stolen base attempts and displayed his power by belting a home run and a double at Louisville to post an .810 slugging percentage. Harrison's performance also landed him a mention in Baseball America's weekly notebook.