Championship Central
CLEARWATER, Fla. – Rightfielder A.J. Bumpass hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning as part of Cincinnati’s late-inning surge as the Bearcats rallied from an early deficit to take a 10-6 win against UCF Saturday at Spectrum Field in the semifinal round of the American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship presented by Air Force Reserve.
Cincinnati will face UConn for the American Athletic Conference title and automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Sunday at Noon ET on ESPNews. Live pregame coverage will be on the American Digital Network beginning at 11:25 a.m., while the postgame show featuring interviews with the winning head coach and student-athletes will be on the ADN immediately following Sunday’s game.
Bumpass went 1-for-2 with two walks Saturday, continuing his torrid showing at the American Championship. Bumpass is hitting .778 for the tournament, including a home run, a triple, six RBIs, five runs scored and four walks, leading Cincinnati into the American Championship final for the first time. It will be Cincinnati’s first conference championship final since the Bearcats fell to Louisville in the 2008 Big East final.
Cincinnati, which batted an American Athletic Conference-low .246 as a team in the regular season, has hit at a .340 clip in the tournament.
Cincinnati trailed 5-2 after four innings Saturday, but the Bearcats scored in each of the last five innings to pull away. Bumpass’ two-run shot in the sixth inning gave Cincinnati the lead for good, and the Bearcats added insurance runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth.
Cincinnati touched five UCF pitchers for 14 hits and took advantage of three errors. The Knights left 12 base runners stranded in the ballgame.
The Bearcats gained an early lead in the top of the second when Eric Santiago stroked a single to leftfield and Cole Murphy got his hand on the plate just ahead of the tag. Joey Bellini made it 2-0 with a line drive to the left side that deflected off the glove of a lunging Brandon Hernandez, allowing Jeremy Johnson to come home.
The Knights tied it in the bottom of the second as two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with no outs and Hernandez sent a hard grounder down the third base line past a diving Santiago. Hernandez’ double brought Ben McCabe and Ray Alejo home, making it 2-2. The Bearcats got out of the inning without further damage after Anthony George was put out at home trying to advance on a pitch that missed high and deflected hard off the backstop.
UCF catcher Ben McCabe took care of a Cincinnati threat in the top of the fourth inning when he gunned down two base runners at second base, and he gave the Knights their first lead of the game with his second home run of the season - a solo shot that cleared the leftfield wall to put UCF on top 3-2. Dallas Beavers worked a full count and knocked a two-run single up the middle to make it 5-2.
Cincinnati’s Wyatt Stapp brought the Bearcats within one with a two-run home run to right with one out in the fifth inning. The Bearcats reclaimed the lead in the sixth when Jace Mercer led off with a grounder to short that went for an error and Bumpass followed with a long two-run shot to right-center to put the Bearcats ahead 6-5.
Johnson went 3-for-4 with two runs scored for the Bearcats, while Murphy, Stapp and Wiemer all had two hits. AJ Kullman (2-6) picked up the pitching win after going 2.2 innings in which he allowed one run on three hits with four strikeouts. Korren Thompson got the final out for his 12th save of the year.
UCF was led by Hernandez, who went 3-for-5, while McCabe was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Luis Ferrer (2-1) took the loss for the Knights.
Sunday’s championship final will be the fourth meeting between Cincinnati and UConn this season. The Bearcats took two of the three regular-season meetings in Connecticut April 5-7.
2019 American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship
Spectrum Field · Clearwater, Fla.
Tuesday, May 21
No. 4 UConn 4, No. 5 Houston 3
No. 8 Wichita State 6, No. 1 ECU 2
No. 2 Cincinnati 11, No. 7 Memphis 6
No. 3 Tulane 5, No. 6 UCF 2
Wednesday, May 22
ECU 13, Houston 2 (Houston eliminated)
UCF 8, Memphis 7 (10 innings) (Memphis eliminated)
Thursday, May 23
UConn 9, Wichita State 7
Cincinnati 8, Tulane 4
Friday, May 24
Wichita State 12, ECU 5 (ECU eliminated)
UCF 6, Tulane 2 (Tulane eliminated)
Saturday, May 25
UConn 8, Wichita State 3 (Wichita State eliminated)
Cincinnati 10, UCF 6 (UCF eliminated)
Sunday, May 26 | Championship | ESPNews
Cincinnati vs. UConn | Noon ET