BOX SCORE

PHOTO GALLERY

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

The Bearcat baseball team opened the 2011 season in Winter Haven, Florida with a 14-5 loss to St. John Fisher College, a team ranked 23rd in the nation in pre-season polls.

Paul Kubeja started on the mound for the Bearcats, and kept the hard-hitting Cardinals off the board in the top of the first. 

After the Bearcats failed to score in the bottom of the inning, St. John Fisher tallied four runs on four hits in the top of the second to take a 4-0 lead, then added a pair of runs in the third to make it 6-0.

In the bottom of the third, Zach Bush walked to lead off, then advanced to second on a single by freshman Joey Fearer, the Bearcats' new center fielder.  Joe Aul then drove both runners home with a triple to make the score 6-2.  Aul later scored on a double by Zack Galasso.

In the Cardinal fourth, with two runners on, Sean Osterman came up with the longest blast of the day a drive that landed just in front of the 420-foot sign in straightaway center field.  Fearer nearly chased it down, but it ended up being a three-run, inside-the-park home run that chased Kubeja and made the score 9-2.

Aul responded with a Bearcat home run, hitting a blast over the left field fence in the bottom of the 9th, but it was too little, too late for the Bearcats, as they fell by a score of 14-5.

Kubeja (0-1) worked 3.2 innings and took the loss, while Tim Johnson went six innings and picked up the win for the Cardinals (1-0).

The Bearcats will be back in action on Monday, facing the Milwaukee School of Engineering in a doubleheader.  Jeff Bugajski and Max Henry are expected to handle the starting assignments on the mound.  The games will be broadcast live...CLICK HERE for more details.