TicketsSTARKVILLE, Miss. – The No. 2 seed Cincinnati baseball team battled but saw its season come to a close with an 8-6 loss to No. 3 seed Louisiana in the NCAA Starkville Regional Sunday afternoon at Dudy Noble Field. With the loss, the Bearcats conclude the season with a 38-22 record and their second-consecutive year winning a game in the NCAA Tournament.
Enzo Infelise went 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored, Charlie Niehaus had a pair of knocks and Cal Sefcik blasted his first home run of the season for the Bearcats. Louisiana left-hander Tyler Papenbrock earned the win, giving up one earned run in four innings of relief, while Donovan LaSalle went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBI.
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“They hit four balls out of the yard, their shortstop made a couple of big-league plays and we lined out a couple times,” Cincinnati head coach Jordan Bischel said. “That’s baseball. The other day was our day and today was their day. You have two teams that I feel are hands down top-30 teams in the country. Somebody had to go home today, and I think either team would have felt pretty good that they sold out about it.”
With one down in the top of the first, Derrick Pitts singled and Quinton Coats walked before Louisiana starter Andrew Herrmann induced a foul out to third by Jack Natili. But the Ragin’ Cajuns’ left-hander made an errant pickoff throw that allowed both runners to advance and Infelise followed with a two-out, two-run single to left for the Cincinnati lead.
Louisiana then was able to get to Bearcats’ starter Connor Blue in the second. Drew Markle led off with a home run to straight-away center before LaSalle singled to center, Maddox Mandino was hit by a pitch and Josh Lim reached on a bunt single to load the bases. Blue caught Noah Lewis looking but a fielder’s choice grounder by Blaze Rodriguez plated LaSalle and Mark Collins followed with a line-drive single to center to score Mandino for the 3-2 lead.
The Ragin’ Cajuns added to their lead an inning later when Markle reached on an error and came around to score on a LaSalle home run, but Cincinnati got both runs back on a two-run shot to left by Cal Sefcik to again make it a one-run contest.
Leading off the inning, Infelise singled to right-center to chase Hermann in favor of Papenbrock. The left-hander retired Sefcik and Christian Mitchelle, but Jackson Smith followed with an infield single and Niehaus plated Infelise with a single through the right side. Ryan Tyranski then walked to load the bases and Pitts drew a walk to score Smith with the go-ahead run to make it 6-5 in favor of the Bearcats.
But, after Papenbrock left the bases juiced with a strikeout of Coats to end the inning, LaSalle answered right back with a solo shot to center to lead off the bottom of the sixth to knot the score once again. After Blue responded to get Owen Galt to ground out for the first out of the frame, Lim reached on an infield single and advanced to third after a passed ball and a throwing error. But Cincinnati’s freshman right-hander came up big to get Lewis to bounce to third, where Mitchelle cut down Lim at the plate trying to score the go-ahead run.
That was the day for Blue, who was lifted with two down in the sixth for right-hander Chad Brown. The freshman induced a ground ball from Rodriguez but it was just past the outstretched reach of Smith, who was ranging far to his left, and into right field as Lewis came around to give the Ragin’ Cajuns the lead again.
After Rodriguez made a pair of high-reel plays at short to keep the Bearcats off the bases in the top of the seventh, Colt Brown doubled the Louisiana lead with a solo home run to left-center in the bottom of the inning.
After a scoreless eighth, Papenbrock retired the first two batters of the ninth before singles by Coats and Natili put the tying run on first. However, the left-hander got Infelise on a first-pitch comebacker to the mound to end it.