ARLINGTON, Texas – No. 5 seed Cincinnati (32-24) took down No. 3 seed Texas (35-22) in an elimination game at the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship Wednesday evening with an 8-7 win at Globe Life Field.
 
Cincinnati opened the scoring in the first inning as Christian Mitchelle singled through the left side to score Lauden Brooks.

The two teams went scoreless in the second and third innings. In the fourth Cincinnati scored again and increased their lead to 2-0. Texas starting pitcher Charlie Hurley left with no outs and the bases loaded. Gage Boehm came in and induced a ground ball double play which allowed Mitchelle to score.

Tommy Boba held Texas hitless through three complete innings before Peyton Powell got the Longhorns in the hit column. Three pitches later the Big 12 Player of the Year, Max Belyeu sent a ball into the right field seats to tie the game. The home run marked the 18^th of the year for Belyeu and his 53^rd RBI.

Texas was not done scoring in the fourth as they scored one more run off a Will Gasparino double. Jack O’Dowd followed the double by walking to load the bases. Carson Marsh came into pitch for Cincinnati and was able to get out of the jam with two strikeouts.

Cincinnati regained the lead in the sixth inning on a two-out single from Landyn Vidourek. Tommy O’Connor and Josh Hegemann came in on the play to make the score 4-3 in favor of the Bearcats.

The Bearcats added some run support in the eighth inning via a three-run home run off the bat of Kerrington Cross to increase their lead to 7-3. Alec Jones and O’Connor came around to score as they reached base via back-to-back walks to open the frame. Cincinnati would not be done after that as they scored one more off-the-throwing error by the pitcher Easton Tumis.

Texas responded to the top-half rally by the Bearcats by adding a run off an O’Dowd ground out. On the next pitch, Jalin Flores doubled to left field to bring home two more runs. Powell kept the line moving with an RBI single to make the score 8-7 in favor of Cincinnati.

Marsh was the winning pitcher today, bringing his record to 5-2 on the year. Boehm picked up the loss dropping his record to 5-3.

Cincinnati will face the losing team of game eight between No. 2 seed Oklahoma State and No. 10 seed Texas Tech on Thursday, May 23 at 5 p.m. ET/4 p.m. CT on ESPNU.

Championship Central