UC Bearcats baseball knocks off No. 12 Oklahoma on Senior Day. Will it help NCAA status?

After getting swept by No. 12 Oklahoma in a doubleheader Thursday (14-6 and 12-8), the University of Cincinnati Bearcats baseball team had Senior Day to salvage a win.

Appropriately enough, senior Josh Hegemann made his first Bearcat home run a memory of a lifetime. His eighth-inning grand slam put UC in front for good in a 10-6 victory. Carson Marsh pitched out of trouble in the ninth, getting a game-ending double-play and giving the Bearcats their best quality win of the season.

"I don't know if the term signature win applies, but that feels like one doesn't it," UC head coach Jordan Bischel said afterward. "It's awesome for our guys. They deserve that one. They've worked so hard to prepare for those moments. It was awesome to see it pay off for them."

Digging deep to win

Down 6-0 in the bottom of the sixth, it looked like fans were in store for a Sooners series sweep which might affect the Bearcats chances at an NCAA tournament bid. But, the fans at UC Baseball Stadium ended up having plenty to cheer about.

UC got on the board on run-scoring singles by Tommy O'Connor and Landyn Vidourek. A Lauden Brooks double-play ball plated a third run and the deficit was cut in half. Michael Conte then provided two scoreless innings of relief setting up UC's eighth-inning fireworks.

UC's Kameron Guidry and O'Connor reached base and Vidourek singled. A Kerrington Cross fielder's choice and Hunter Jessee single scored Guidry and Vidourek tying the game. After Christian Mitchelle was hit by a pitch, the bases were loaded for Hegemann.

The former Badin Ram then followed the Hollywood script. Senior Day, his last at-bat at home, bases juiced and he jacked the ball skyward in the direction of Fifth Third Arena, a grand slam.

His 95th hit in his 301st career at-bat as a Bearcat was his first college round-tripper.

"It was against a closer who's been really good throwing 97 miles an hour," Bischel said. "Hegemann's been a total team guy. It's never been about him. He doesn't get a lot of attention. Guys that hit home runs do. What's so cool about it is I think every one of his teammates is happy it was him in that moment."

Sticker-gate with Jessee

UC appeared to tie the game early in the third inning when Hunter Jessee laced a single to left. However, Oklahoma challenged his bat. Upon inspection of the bat, Jessee was ruled out, the runners returned to their bases and Bischel was left to keep Jessee from going off George Brett-style.

"They do bat testing before every series," Bischel explained. "Every bat gets a sticker to approve it. Somehow Hunter's sticker fell off. It's legal to ask and without a sticker, he's called out. My only goal was to keep him in the game and myself in the game. Ultimately, there was nothing we could do about it, so let's keep playing."

NCAA status?

Coming into the game, DI Baseball had the Bearcats in the "last four in" category and headed to the Lexington Regional as a No. 3 seed. The Kentucky Wildcats were the top seed in that projection.

"Typically the committee is incredibly RPI reliant and right now are RPI's not in a spot where they put us in," Bischel said. "Flipside, teams that win 17 Big 12 games have almost always gotten in. I don't sit in that room and pretend to know what they're talking about. We've proven consistently the last five or six weeks that if you stack us up against NCAA tournament teams, we can go out there and compete and win a lot of games."

The Bearcats are at 31 wins, the 10th UC team to reach 30 or more. The Bearcats won 31 in 2019 under Scott Googins when they won the AAC tournament and received their first NCAA bid in 45 years. There have been eight other seasons of 30 or more wins between 1987-2011.

Before 2019's run which ended in the Corvallis Regional and a 31-31 record, the Bearcats made it in 1956, 1958, 1961, 1967, 1971 and 1974.

A chance to enhance in Arlington

The Bearcats are in the Big 12 tournament next week May 21-25 at Globe-Life Stadium, the home of the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas. They are 31-23 (17-13 Big 12), not bad for a team picked to finish last in the league with BYU. UC was 18-8 at home, 10-15 on the road and 3-0 in neutral sites.

An NCAA regional berth would be Bischel's sixth and his first as a Bearcat. He took Northwood to three and Central Michigan to a pair. Not counting 2020's Covid year, he's won 30 or more games seven straight seasons and has been over 40 four times.

"There are not a lot of people that even expected us to be playing next weekend," Bischel said. "It's not so much how many do we have to win, it's let's enjoy this opportunity to compete and see where it leads us. We're going to try to keep that mentality."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Senior Day drama for UC baseball over Oklahoma might help NCAA chances