TicketsApril 19, 2010
CINCINNATI - The University of Cincinnati baseball team hits the road on Tuesday, April 20, when it meets Ohio University at V.A. Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio, for a 6 p.m. start. The Bearcats are coming off a 3-2 week last week, which included winning the 2010 Joe Nuxhall Classic.
V.A. Memorial Stadium is the home of the Prospect League's Chillicothe Paints and has been the site of the 2008 and 2009 Mid-American Conference Baseball Championships.
At the 2010 Joe Nuxhall Classic in Oxford, Ohio, last week, Cincinnati used great pitching and timely hitting to claim the championship trophy. In the opener against Wright State, senior Jimmy Jacquot hit a one-out, game-tying solo home run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at five, before UC eventually won the game later in the inning courtesy of a Raiders error and wild pitch.
The following day, UC jumped out to a 3-0 lead through five innings over Miami University, and behind the bullpen work of sophomore Sam Slavik, senior Brian Garman, junior Brian Sand, and Andrew Burkett, the Bearcats hung on for the 3-2 win.
Over the weekend, UC took the opener of its three-game BIG EAST Conference series against St. John's, 4-2, behind another solid outing from junior Dan Jensen and great work from Garman and Burkett in relief. However, a late rally on Saturday gave St. John's a 6-4 comeback win, preceding a seven-run middle inning burst on Sunday to give the Red Storm the 7-1 triumph and the series win.
The Bobcats enter the week with a 10-23 overall record but have won seven of their last eight games, including winning two-of-three games in MAC action last weekend at Northern Illinois. Gauntlet Eldemire leads the Bobcats offense hitting at a .411 clip and is followed by Robert Maddox III, who is hitting .387 with a team-leading eight home runs and a team-best 43 RBI.
As a squad, Ohio is hitting .300, while its pitching staff owns a collective ERA of 6.79. OU's Achilles heel this season has been its defense as the Bobcats have committed 66 errors, which has turned into 43 unearned runs. The same could be said for Cincinnati, whose 51 errors have turned into 47 unearned runs.
Ohio leads the all-time series against Cincinnati, 35-30, but the Bearcats have won two in a row in the series.
NOTE: Cincinnati's game time at Notre Dame on Saturday, April 24, has been changed to 3:30 p.m.