TAMPA (April 29, 2023) – The University of South Florida Bulls (17-27, 6-8 AAC) scored twice in the bottom of the ninth inning and put the tying runs on base with one out on Saturday evening, but the Cincinnati Bearcats (19-24, 7-7 AAC) held on to win for the second day in a row, 11-9, at USF Baseball Stadium.
Cincinnati won the series opener on Friday, 9-7, in 10 innings after South Florida rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Sophomore Bobby Boser (Wesley Chapel) took over the USF team lead for home runs on Saturday with his second long ball in as many days and ninth total homer over the last 11 games. Boser's 12 home runs pace the Bulls and his seven homers during AAC play lead the league.
The Bearcats lead 2-0 on Saturday with single tallies in the second and third frames. In the bottom of the third inning, Joaquin Monque (Weston) belted his career-best fourth home run of the season to put USF on the board. Later in the inning, with two outs, freshman Eric Snow (Forsyth, Ga.) connected on a two-run double to give the Bulls a 3-2 advantage.
USF maintained the lead until the top of the sixth inning when the Bearcats hung four runs on the board and then extended their advantage with three more in the top of the seventh for a 9-3 lead.
Boser's three-run blast cut the Bulls' deficit to 9-6 in the bottom of the seventh. Cincinnati responded with two more runs in the top of the eighth inning which proved to be the difference in the ballgame.
Travis Sankovich (Uniontown, Pa.) drove in a run in the bottom of the eighth inning to make it an 11-7 affair and the Bulls continued to battle until their final out in the bottom of the ninth.
Boser singled to lead off the USF ninth and scored two batters later on another double by Snow. After a walk by Drew Brutcher (Lakeland), Rafael Betancourt poked a single to the opposite field to score Snow and cut the Bearcats' lead to 11-9. The Bulls had the tying runs on first and second base with one out in the inning after Betancourt's RBI-single, but Cincinnati slammed the door to clinch the series victory.
Notable
- Boser is batting .447 with 11 extra-base hits, seven home runs and 17 RBI over 14 conference games. He is hitting .400 with nine extra-base hits, seven homers and 13 RBI over his last 10 overall games.
- Boser (3), Snow (2), Brutcher (2) and Monque (2) each tallied a multi-hit game.
- Brutcher and Daniel Cantu (Jacksonville) share the team lead with 15 multi-hit games this season.
- Brutcher is currently tied for seventh all-time in program history with 29 career home runs.
Up Next
The Bulls will look to salvage the finale of the three-game weekend series against Cincinnati on Sunday, April 30. Sunday is USF's annual Vs. Cancer "Cut for the Cure" Game.
About USF Baseball
The USF Baseball program played its first season in 1966 and is entering its 58th season in 2023 under head coach Billy Mohl (sixth season). The Bulls have made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, including four since 2015, and earned their first-ever Super Regional berth in 2021. USF was ranked in the Top 25 by five different publications in the final 2021 polls, checking in as high as No. 16. The Bulls have won five conference tournament titles (3 Sun Belt, 1 Metro and 1 American) and six regular season championships (3 Sun Belt, 2 Metro and 1 C-USA). USF baseball players have been recognized with All-America honors 12 times, most recently with third baseman David Villar in 2018, and 18 have earned Freshman All-America accolades, most recently Drew Brutcher and Carmine Lane in 2021. Four Bulls were selected in the 2022 MLB Draft. Former 2018 first-round selection, Shane McClanahan, became the program's first-ever MLB All-Star in 2022 and was the starting pitcher for the American League.
– #GoBulls –
