Portsmouth, OH – UC Baseball continued fantastic play in Mid-South Conference action on Sunday as they closed out their three-game series with the Bears of Shawnee State University. After another dominating offensive performance in the first game of the day with a 12-2 win for UC, it was a stellar pitching performance by
Nathan Geissler that would give Cumberlands the series sweep with a 1-0 win in game three of the series. The pair of wins sends the Patriots to 20-3 overall on the year and 3-0 in MSC play.
Game 1: Offensive onslaught sees school record broken
UC scored in seven of nine innings in the contest including four home runs in the 12-2 win over the Bears.
Josh Avila would get the start for the Patriots and give another great performance on the hill. A trio of doubles by
Rolando Rodriguez,
Jose Rojas, and
Bryan Benz would bring two runs across early for UC. An RBI single by
Marquis Orozco brought in another while a pair of errors would give Orozco the chance to take home to give UC a 4-0 lead.
Rolando Rodriguez would go yard in the fourth with a two-run shot to left, his fifth of the season, to push the Patriots out to a 6-0 advantage. A Bears' RBI single in the fourth along with a RBI double in the fifth would cut into UC's lead at 6-2 after five innings. In the sixth,
Bryan Leef would send the ball deep and gone to right-center for his sixth home run of the season, this one a solo shot, to make it 7-2 Patriots.
The seventh inning saw history made for the Patriots. With two down and one on,
Bryan Benz stepped in to send a 2-0 pitch deep over the scoreboard in center field for his fifth home run of the season to make it 9-2 Patriots. The home run was the 35
th of his career as he surpassed the late Jason Ellis (34) for home runs hit in a career at Cumberlands.
An RBI walk in the eighth to
Pedro Nazario would extend the lead to 10-2 UC before Leef would go yard for the second time in the contest in the ninth. This time, Leef would go deep to left for a two-run shot and his team leading seventh home run of the season to give UC the 12-2 final score.
Avila turned in another quality start for the Patriots as he would go the complete game nine innings allowing just two earned runs on six hits and a walk while fanning three for the win, improving his record to 4-1 on the year.
Game two: Dominate pitching performance pushes Patriots to victory
Nathan Geissler would take the mound for the third game of the series and would give another fantastic performance for the Patriots' pitching staff. Offensively, the game was quiet until the fifth inning for Cumberlands. With two down, Nazario would double to center field.
Kevin Rolon would follow with a single that would drive in Nazario to give UC a 1-0 lead.
That's all the offense the Patriots would need as Geissler would continue UC's great string of pitching performances with the third straight complete game for the staff as Cumberlands would earn the 1-0 win over the Bears to complete the MSC series sweep. Nathan would go the full seven innings of work allowing no runs on just one hit and three walks while striking out nine in the win, improving his record on the season to 3-0.
Up Next
The Patriots return to non-conference action on Tuesday, March 19
th as they travel south to Madisonville, Tennessee to take on the Tigers of Hiwassee College in a doubleheader. First pitch of game one is slated for 1 pm.
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