Photo Courtesy of Big 12
Arlington, Texas—On Wednesday, in the third game of the Big 12 tournament, the second elimination game, the 5-seed Cincinnati Bearcats beat the No.3 University of Texas Longhorns 8-7 at Globe Life Field.
Cincinnati is in its first year in the Big 12 Conference, and manager Jordan Bischel is in his first year with the program.
It took the Longhorns until the fourth inning to get on the scoreboard when sophomore right fielder Max Belyeu launched a two-run home run over the center field wall, his 18th of the season, which scored senior third baseman Peyton Powell to tie the game up at 2-2.
A few batters later, Texas freshman center fielder Will Gasparino laced a double down the left field line, scoring senior left fielder Porter Brown to capture a 3-2 lead.
During the top of the sixth inning, Cincinnati added a pair of runs with sophomore right fielder Landyn Vidourek smacking a two-run single into center field, scoring O’Connor and Hegemann to take the lead back at 4-3.
In the top of the eighth inning, Cincinnati junior third baseman Kerrington Cross came up to the plate against Longhorn relief pitcher Lebarron Johnson and drilled a three-run home run into the left field seats to scoring senior catcher Alec Jones and O’Connor to extend the lead to four runs at 7-3.
“I thought I was seeing the ball well yesterday, and I thought I got my pitches and just missed one. I kind of just stuck to my approach and trusted myself and I got the right pitch to hit it over the fence. I just thought I was pretty locked in with seeing the ball here,” Kerrington Cross told World Baseball Network during the post-game press conference.
“I think we came in struggling a bit offensively but at the end of the day, I’m a catcher first. With the at-bats, I just go up there trying to compete the best I can. Then my main focus is with the staff defensively, ” Galvan told World Baseball Network about both ends of his defense and offense during Wednesday’s post-game press conference.
Texas’s offense started to mount a comeback in the bottom of the eighth inning as sophomore shortstop Jalin Flores stroked a double to left field, scoring sophomore first baseman Jared Thomas and Galvan to cut the lead to two runs at 8-6.
The next batter, Texas senior third baseman Peyton Powell sat back and cracked a single to right-center field as Flores came in to score to make it 8-7.
The Bearcats pitching staff eventually stopped the bleeding and struck out Texas OF Max Belyeu to end the bottom of the eighth inning to keep the one run lead.
They used that momentum to shut down the Texas bats in the bottom of the ninth and won by a final score of 8-7.
Cincinnati will play on May 23 against the No. 10 seed Texas Tech University at Globe Life Field at 5 p.m. EST on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
The Longhorns will have to wait until Selection Monday, May 27, to see on the 2024 NCAA Division I College Baseball Championship Selection Show on ESPN2 at noon EST what region they will play in the first round of the double-elimination format of the 64-field tournament.
