Cincinnati Baseball: Griffin Merritt paces Bearcats to 8-1 win over Tulane

Griffin Merritt had a dominant performance at the plate as the Bearcats took down Tulane 8-1 in the opening round of the AAC Tournament on Tuesday at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida. Beau Keathley was outstanding on the mound as well, helping Cincinnati advance to play East Carolina on Thursday.

Cincinnati Baseball: Griffin Merritt paces Bearcats to 8-1 win over Tulane

After a scoreless top of the first inning, Cole Harting picked up the Bearcats first hit with a two-out single to center field. A couple pitches later, Merritt connected on an RBI double to score Harting from first base which gave Cincinnati an early 1-0 lead as Tulane struggled to match the intensity.

With the bases loaded in the fifth inning, Ryan Nicholson recorded a sacrifice fly to right field to score Wyatt Stapp before Harting hit a two-run double to put the Bearcats up 4-0. Merritt followed that with a two-run homer to plate Harting and seemingly put the game out of reach.

Tulane got on the board in the sixth inning and threatened to score more but Kameron Guidry’s diving put out at second base kept the damage to a minimum. In the bottom of the seventh, Merritt put the finishing touches on the blowout win with a second home run of the day to go up 8-1.

“Griffin Merritt did a great job for us,” head coach Scott Googins explained in the postgame press conference per Cincinnati Athletics. “It was awesome to see his production out there today and we’ve got some other guys that are producing as well that maybe weren’t as loud as what Griffin did today.”

Merritt now has the third most home runs (19) in a single season in school history.

The AAC Player of the Year finished 3/4 with two home runs and five RBI, while Harting went 2/4 with a double and two RBI in the win. Keathley had another phenomenal outing on the mound, throwing a complete game and allowing just one run and six hits as the Bearcats defense was determined from the first pitch.

“Beau Keathley gave us a great start. He ran into some trouble but got himself out of it. We were feeding off what he did on the mound,” Googins later said in the postgame press conference. “We didn’t want to try to save the bullpen or anything like that. It was just that he earned the right to go out and finish the game.

Keathley improved to 5-3 with the victory.

Cincinnati will get a day off before facing 1-seed East Carolina on Thursday, May 26 at 1:00 PM on ESPN+. The Bearcats pulled off an upset over East Carolina on April 1 but lost five consecutive matchups after that including a series sweep in early May as the Pirates have won 15 straight games.