TicketsMay 19, 2012
By Shawn Sell
CINCINNATI -- Georgetown's Christian Venditti's fifth inning grand slam broke open a close game, leading the Hoyas to a 15-4 win over Cincinnati on Senior Day at Marge Schott Stadium. With the host Bearcats trailing by just a 3-1 score, Venditti's third longball of the season pushed the Hoyas in front to stay.
After yielding three runs in the first three innings, the Bearcats looked like they might make a game of it, when senior Jake Saylor (Chandler, Ariz./Paradise Valley CC) drove in Braden Kline (Warsaw, Ind./Warsaw Community) with the first UC run of the day in the bottom of the fourth. But in the fifth, three straight Georgetown singles against Cory Hough (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro) paved the way for Venditti's big fly.
Kline led a Cincinnati (18-38, 7-20 BIG EAST) offense that produced 11 hits, with a pair of doubles and two RBI. Joey Bielek (Scottsdale, Ariz./Chapparal) added three hits and an RBI, while Saylor also registered a two hits.
Georgetown scored first in the second against UC starter and losing pitcher Brad Mergen (Albany, Minn./Indian Hills CC) courtesy of a Venditti RBI single. A Mike Garza RBI single in the third chased Mergen and the visitors went up 3-1 against Hough on Rand Ravnaas' sacrifice fly.
After Venditti's game-changer in the fifth, Garza homered in the sixth to push the Hoya lead to 8-1. Cincinnati cut the lead to five with two markers in the sixth on a Saylor RBI single and a run-scoring groundout by Nic Spence (Victoria, Australia/Central Arizona CC). Georgetown (24-29, 10-17 BIG EAST) turned it into a route with four runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth on the way to 25 hits, the most yielded by UC pitchers this season. The Bearcats rounded out the day's scoring in the last of the ninth on Bielek's single to score Spence.
Ravnaas (five hits) and Venditti (three hits, six RBI) had big offensive days for the Hoyas, as did Andy Lentz and Garza who each contributed four hits. Will Harris got the win for Georgetown, his second of this season against UC, after allowing just one run and five hits in five innings of work.
Prior to the game, UC honored a 10-member senior class that included assistant coaches Jamell Cervantez and Sam Slavik, along with Hough, Kiley Jones (Louisville, Ky./Eastern), T.J. Jones (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle), Kline, Mergen, Saylor, Spence and Sam Vandenheuvel (Chandler, Ariz./Mesa CC).