Williamsburg, KY – UC Baseball utilized their depth in a big way on Tuesday as the Patriots combined for eight home runs in today's doubleheader to earn a pair of wins over the Cougars of the University of Cincinnati-Clermont by scores of 13-3 and 15-6. The two victories improves Cumberlands to 27-4 overall on the year with another non-conference contest on the docket for Wednesday afternoon.
Game one: A trio of home runs caps big third inning for Patriots
An RBI double pushed the first run across the board for Cincinnati-Clermont in the first, but UC would explode open in the third. Nine runs crossed the plate for the Patriots in the inning including a three-run home run from
Bryan Leef, a solo home run for
Bryan Benz, and a three-run shot from
Austin Madry, giving UC a 9-1 lead. An additional run in the fourth coupled with a solo home run from
Robbie Stroub and a two-run home run from
Orley Arellano capped off the 13-3 win for UC.
Eight of 14 hits in the contest were extra-base hits for Cumberlands while
Colton Easterwood came in to get the win for the Patriots. Easterwood tallied six innings of work allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits and five walks while striking out eight.
Game two: Leef and Stroub Go Big in Win
With a 1-0 lead in the third, Stroub went big with a three-run home run for his fifth of the year. An additional run in the inning gave UC a 5-0 lead after three. Four runs would score on four hits in the fourth to make it a 9-0 game in favor of Cumberlands, but UC was not done with the scoring just yet. In the fifth, Leef would go yard for the second time on the day, this one a two-run shot to center, to make it 11-0 Patriots.
Cincinnati-Clermont would cut into the lead in the sixth with three runs of their own, so Leef took it into his own hands to get those runs back. In the bottom of the inning with the bases loaded and two down, Leef would smash a 1-1 pitch way over the left field fence for a grand slam, his third home run of the day and now a team-leading eleventh home run on the year to make it 15-3 Patriots. The Cougars got three more in the seventh but it wasn't enough as Cumberlands would win the game 15-6.
Hector Abreu would get his first win of the season in the game going 3.0 innings allowing three earned runs on four hits with three strikeouts.
Cumberlands returns to action on Wednesday, March 27
th as they host Alice Lloyd College for a non-conference contest. The nine-inning game is set to begin at 3:30 pm.
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