Cincinnati Bearcats baseball stays alive in Big 12 tournament by beating Texas

In their first and only meeting with Texas in the Big 12, the University of Cincinnati baseball Bearcats put a four-spot on the board in the eighth inning, then survived a four-run eighth to hold on and eliminate the No. 24 Longhorns, 8-7.

The Bearcats go to 32-24 on the season, while Texas drops to 35-22 and heads back to Austin to await their seeding in the NCAA tournament. UC, who entered the Big 12 tournament in DI Baseball's "last four out" category along with Xavier, California and Louisville, still holds on to hope after hooking the 'Horns.

"That's what's fun about this tournament, there's two great teams in every game," UC head coach Jordan Bischel said. "One's going to have a winner and one's going to have a loser. We felt both ends of it here (UC lost Tuesday, 6-5 to UCF), but that's a great experience for our guys."

Bearcats struck first

Up against the wall after losing 6-5 in 11 innings to No. 8 seed UCF Tuesday, the Bearcats face a win-or-go-home situation Wednesday at Globe-Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Likewise, the No. 3 seed Longhorns fell to the No. 6 seed Texas Tech 6-4 and needed a win.

Christian Mitchelle had a run-scoring hit in the first inning, then scored on a double-play ball hit by Alec Jones in the fourth to give UC the early 2-0 edge.

Texas comeback

Texas had no hits against Tommy Boba until the fourth, The Longhorns went up 3-2 on a two-run Max Belyeu homer and a double by Will Gasparino. But UC, rebounded in the sixth when Landyn Vidourek singled in Tommy O'Connor and Joh Hegemann for the 4-3 Bearcat lead.

A Cross crush

UC appeared to have some Globe Life insurance runs when Kerrington Cross drilled a baseball 108 miles per hour and 415 feet into the left-field bleachers giving UC a commanding 7-3 lead.

"I thought I was seeing the ball yesterday, I thought I got my pitches and I just missed one," Cross said. "I stuck to my approach, I trusted myself and I got the right pitch and ended up hitting it over the fence. I knew it right away. Emotions took over, bat spike!"

A pickoff attempt of pinch runner Dalton Pearson then failed, allowing Josh Kross to score and the Bearcats led 8-3 with six outs to get against Texas.

No. 24 for a reason

Christian Mitchelle took the mound from second base in the eighth for Chase Horst but allowed Texas three runs. After a run on a groundout, back-to-back hits by Jalin Flores and Peyton Powell got the Longhorns with a run at 8-7. A strikeout of Belyeu ended the inning.

Could they do it?

The Bearcats went 1-2-3 in the ninth and Mitchelle was sent out for his second inning of work. After a lead-off single, MItchelle went ground out, ground out, fly out. Vidourek squeezed the game's final out and the Bearcats in black unis stormed the field with the 8-7 win and another day to play baseball.

Winner winner

Freshman Carson March went 2.2 innings striking out four to get the win and up his record to 5-2. Mitchelle, in addition to a 2-for-4 night at the plate with an RBI, picked up the save.

NCAA bid?

"I know the RPI is king and ours isn't there," Bischel said. "I think a lot of that is early in the season. If you look at our last 10 weeks, we're an NCAA tournament team. We've said let's play as hard as we can as well as we can. If we play in that thing or not, we'll walk away knowing we played at an NCAA level."

Who's next?

UC awaits the loser of Wednesday night's late game between Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. The Bearcats will again play at 5 p.m. Eastern Thursday, with the game televised on ESPNU.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati baseball beats Texas in Big 12 baseball tournament