TicketsMay 6, 2009
CINCINNATI - A two-run, fifth-inning home run from senior Mike Spina (Newberry, Fla./Newberry) gave the University of Cincinnati baseball team its first lead of the game and Cincinnati never looked back as it defeated Butler University, 6-3, in Game 2 of its Wednesday doubleheader to earn a split with the Bulldogs. Spina's two-run home run was his 19th of the season the 40th of his career, making him the third player in UC history to reach 40 career home runs.
In addition to Spina, senior Cameron Satterwhite (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller) and sophomore Chris Peters (Tipp City, Ohio/Tipp City) drove in one run apiece for the Bearcats.
Butler jumped ahead just as it did in Game 1 with one run in the first and third innings to take a 2-0 lead.
UC got on the board in the second courtesy of a clutch two-out hit. With freshman Kendal Coleman (Hillsboro, Ohio/Hillsboro) on first base with two outs, Satterwhite drilled a double to right-center field allowing Coleman to score all the way from first.
Butler expanded its lead back to two runs, 3-1, with a run in the fourth, but UC brought its deficit back to one run in its half of the fourth. Back-to-back singles by junior Lance Durham (Forest Park, Ohio/Roger Bacon) and junior Jimmy Jacquot (Swansea, Ill./Belleville East) placed runners on first and second base with no outs. A sacrifice bunt moved both runners up a base, before a Peters sacrifice fly scored Durham and brought UC back within one run, 3-2.
The Bearcats jumped on top for the first time in the game in the bottom of the fifth and it all started with a junior Beach Brooks (Winter Haven, Fla./Winter Haven) walk. Brooks was pinch run for by redshirt freshman Zach Collaros (Steubenville, Ohio/Steubenville) and later in the inning, Collaros scored on a two-run, opposite field home run by Spina that placed UC in front, 4-3.
Senior Jake Geglein (Cincinnati, Ohio/McNicholas) worked out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the sixth to keep UC's one-run lead intact and the Bearcats tacked on two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to give their senior closer a three-run cushion. Geglein set down the Bulldogs in the ninth, earning his eighth save of the season.
Cincinnati heads to Morgantown, W. Va., this weekend for a three-game BIG EAST Conference set at West Virginia. The series kicks off on Saturday, May 9, with a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m.