Errors, Lack of Offense Sink UC Against Xavier

Its tough to win when you don’t hit. It’s tough to win when you field poorly. You can overcome one, but you can’t usually overcome both. Cincinnati fell victim to both deadly symptoms on Tuesday against Xavier and were bludgeoned 9-1 because of it.

The loss sank UC in more ways than one. The Bearcats are now 18-18 overall with losses in back-to-back games. Besides that, they are also now relegated to the losers bracket of the Joe Nuxhall Classic where they will play Wright State, which lost to Miami (Ohio) 4-3 on Tuesday.

Connor McVey and Manny Rodriguez both went 2-for-3 for UC on Tuesday, which is good. What is not good is the fact that the rest of the team got all of one hit. As a team, the Bearcats went 5-for-28 with two walks. So that means they didn’t leave many runners on base (four), but that was mostly because they didn’t have many runners on base to strand. McVey hit a double as the only extra-base hit, meaning the Bearcats didn’t round the bases much at all, with Rodriguez scoring on a sacrifice fly from RJ Thompson after a double steal as the most exciting moment of the game for the Bearcats.

In the hopes of holding Xavier at bay, the Bearcats used seven pitchers. This wasn’t just any bullpen game, however, as Ty Neal wasn’t just using pitchers in short bursts to great success. He had to get guys out of there due to ineffectiveness. Starter A.J. Olasz allowed one run on three hits over 2 ¹⁄₃ innings. Jarod Yoakam then came in and went 1 ²⁄₃ innings in which he let up five runs. Now, three of those runs were unearned but three hits and two walks allowed didn’t exactly put him in a spot to succeed. Tristan Hammans pitched next and allowed ones across the board (1 ¹⁄₃ innings, one hit, one earned run, one walk, one strikeout). Doug Lowe II didn’t record an out but did manage to surrender two runs and then Tanner Schimmoeller, Isaac Olson and Cal Jarrett came in and posted scoreless relief appearances.

Xavier went 10-for-36 against UC’s leaky pitching staff, with Rylan Bannon blasting a three-run home run in the sixth inning, which was the final death stroke by the Musketeers. They didn’t even need all that offense with how Brad Kirschner pitched (six innings pitched, one earned run) as the starter, along with Trey Schramm (two innings, zero runs) and Jason Hall (one inning, zero runs) in relief.