Cincinnati, Ohio- The Bearcats were looking to kick off the American Athletic Conference Tournament Tuesday morning where they took on the 5th seed Tulane Green Wave down in Clearwater, Florida. The Bearcats were looking to keep the ball rolling after a hot stretch down the final two weeks of the regular season, including a series win over the Green Wave just two weeks ago.
The Bearcats were looking to keep the momentum moving as they found out on Monday that redshirt junior outfielder Griffin Merritt was named the American Athletic Player of the Year, after slugging 17 home runs, which led the American Athletic Conference, while hitting .309% on the season, the Cincinnati native was starting to put his name on some radars during his 4th season with the Bearcats. They also found out that four players were named to the American Athletic Conference 2nd team, and those four individuals were first baseman Ryan Nicholson, outfielder Paul Komistek, and pitchers Beau Keathley and Connor Linn.
Speaking of pitchers Beau Keathley, the senior was looking to take the ball for yesterday morning’s contest with the Green Wave as Keathley has been the Bearcats ace all season, finishing 4th in the AAC with 76 innings pitched, which was a team high for the Bearcats. Keathley led the Bearcats with 83 strikeouts on the season, as the senior saw his best outing come back on March 19th vs Saint Joesph’s where he went 6 innings, of no run baseball, while striking out 12 along the way which would earn him AAC Pitcher of the Week honors just two short days later.
How it happened- Now to this morning’s contest, The Bearcats would eventually strike first in the bottom of the first inning after Cole Harting reached on a 2 out single and would eventually come around to score just one batter later after Griffin Merritt roped a 2 out double to the right center field gap which would give the Bearcats a 1-0 lead heading to the second inning.
However, Tulane would find themselves in a prime opportunity to make some damage as they had runners on first, and second before a sac fly would advance the runners to 2nd, and 3rd with 2 outs. The Green Wave just couldn’t find a way to get runners across as Beau Keathley got himself out of the jam with a huge strikeout to end the 2nd inning. The Game would remain a 1-0 game until the fifth inning and that’s when the Bearcats brought out the bats and really busted this one wide open and gave Keathley some room to work with down the stretch as the senior was dealing today.
During the 5th inning the Bearcats would load the bases with no outs, before Paul Komistek would strike out as the Bearcats would look to bust this one open, but first basemen Ryan Nicholson launched a deep sacrifice fly to center field that would score third baseman Wyatt Stapp to give the Bearcats a 2-0 lead. The Damage wouldn’t stop there as sophomore Center fielder Cole Harting would continue to swing his hot bat and launch a 1 out double to left field that would score Cam Scheler and Kam Guidry to give the Bearcats a 4-0 lead over the Green Wave, but the damage would continue when American Athletic Conference Player of the Year Griffin Merrit launched a two-run home run to left field, his 18th home run of the season to give the Bearcats a 6-0 lead and just like that this one was starting to crack open for the Cats.
