Cincinnati, Ohio- Last evening the Bearcats welcome in Big 10 rival Indiana University to UC Baseball Stadium for an afternoon showdown. The Bearcats are riding a three game win streak after sweeping Wichita State over the weekend. The Bearcats are also winners of their last 5 of 6 as they look to keep the ball rolling with a win over Indiana. The Bearcats sit 16-18 on the season,(6-3 AAC), while the Hoosiers are currently 13-21 on the season and (2-7 Big10).
Freshman southpaw and Cincinnati native Carter Earls got the ball for the Bearcats. The southpaw will make his first start of the season after appearing in two games out of the Bullpen this season. The Bearcats average 7.3 runs per game, leading the American Athletic Conference, as they look to keep that ball rolling tonight versus Indiana. The Bearcats have been hot on offense as five players have hit for .300% so far this season, led by Griffin Merritt who leads the AAC with 13 home runs, while Ryan Nicholson is not far behind him with eight of his own. While Merritt and Nicholson, lead the Bearcats in long balls, the Bearcats lead the conference in home runs with 50 on the season to date, good for 33rd in all of college baseball.
The Hoosiers would welcome once Cincinnati Red 3rd baseman Scott Rolen back to Cincinnati, who is now in his 4th season as the director of player development at Indiana.
The Bearcats took an early 1-0 lead over the Hoosiers after a 3 up, 3 down first inning from freshman southpaw Carter Earls, who was making his first start of the season was followed up by an absolute moonshot to Left Field by Griffin Merritt for his 14th home run on the season, recording his 100th career RBI as a Bearcat.
The Hoosiers responded right back in the top of the 2nd after a leadoff walk from Matthew Ellis, First Basemen Brock Tibbitts followed with a 2 run shot to Left field to give the Hoosiers a 2-1 lead over the Bearcats with 0 outs, forcing a visit to the mound to try to settle freshman southpaw Carter Earls down after the longball.
After a great first inning from Carter Earls resulting in 3 up, 3 down, Earls struggled to find his groove again, after the Tibbetts homerun, battling out of a jam in the 2nd inning, but found himself in a jam in the 3rd after a throwing error, and a walk, Bearcats head coach Scott Googins went to the bullpen, and came in with redshirt sophomore Zach Segal, who got the inning ending double play to get the Bearcats out of the jam, preventing the Hoosiers from adding to their 2-1 lead.
