This past weekend, the Hoyas (17-12, 1-5) fell in three straight games at home to conference rival Cincinnati (13-12, 3-3), Georgetown’s second Big East series loss of the season. A lack of bullpen consistency and an inability to drive runners in undid the Blue and Gray allowed the Bearcats to sweep the three closely decided games.

The Hoyas fell 3-1 in the opening game of the series on Friday night despite taking an early lead. In the second inning, senior third baseman Sean Lamont scored on a sacrifice fly to left from junior catcher Kevin Johnson after reaching second base on a throwing error.

The Bearcats tied the game at one in the fifth inning. Freshman pitcher Alex Baker, who entered the game after two scoreless innings from senior starter Alex Meyer, gave up an RBI single to tie the game. With the bases still loaded following the single, senior first baseman Dan Capeless made a heads up play to gun down the possible go-ahead run at the plate.

Senior pitcher Pablo Vinent came on in relief of Baker and threw two and two-thirds innings, keeping the game tied heading into the eighth, when sophomore pitcher Neal Dennison took over.

Dennison hurled a scoreless eighth before fading in the ninth, as the Bearcats plated two runs thanks to a passed ball and sacrifice fly.

Cincinnati starter Dan Jensen capped off a career day on the mound in the bottom of the ninth after inducing a pop fly to left field and striking out Johnson and senior catcher Erick Fernandez. The senior threw all nine innings, gave up only one unearned run and striking out 11 in a dominant outing against the Hoyas.

In the second game of the series on Saturday, a 5-3 Georgetown loss, the hosts took another early lead, but were once again let down by their bullpen. Fernandez opened the scoring in the second run with a solo shot, a feat which was replicated by senior outfielder Dan Godefroi one inning later.

Georgetown’s starting pitcher, sophomore righty Charles Steinman did his part to hold the Bearcat offense in check, yielding one unearned run and striking out three in seven impressive innings.

After the Bearcats halved the lead thanks to scoring their lone run off Steinman in the fifth, the Blue and Gray restored their two-run advantage in the bottom of the sixth thanks to their third solo homerun on the day, this time off the bat of sophomore outfielder Justin Leeson.

Once again, though, Georgetown bullpen unraveled. Junior reliever Billy Cosmopulos took the mound to start the eighth for the Hoyas, but recorded only one out and gave up five runs on four hits in a disastrous outing.

The Cincinnati bullpen held the Georgetown offense in check, as freshman reliever Matt Ring gave up no hits in a scoreless three-inning effort that earned him his second win of the year.

Back from an injury that kept him out of last weekend’s series against Notre Dame, junior righty Will Harris took the hill for the Blue and Gray in the final game as the hosts sought to avoid falling to 1-5 in conference.

This time around, it was the Bearcats who got on the board first with a single run in the top of the first on an RBI double by freshman designated hitter Justin Glass..

Sophomore shortstop Mike Garza tied the game for the Hoyas with a solo blast to left in the third inning. The Blue and Gray took the lead in the next inning when junior second baseman Andy Lentz doubled to right field to score Capeless from second base.

Harris was working on a five-inning scoreless streak when he took the mound at the beginning of the seventh, but departed in favor of Vinent after giving up consecutive singles to open the frame. The senior reliever could not completely salvage the first-and-third no-out situation, though, giving up the game-tying sacrifice fly before wrapping up the inning without yielding another run.

Neither team scored until the top of the tenth, when the Georgetown bullpen failed again. Dennison, who had pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings, struggled out of the gates in the tenth, giving up a run on two hits before being lifted for redshirt sophomore Mike Seander. Two more pitchers were used by Head Coach Pete Wilk before the end of the inning, and the Hoyas escaped without letting the Bearcats do any further damage.

The Blue and Gray had three outs to avoid suffering their first three-game sweep of the season, but could not muster the tying run as Cincinnati senior Brian Sand shut the door on the Hoyas in a series-ending 3-2 win for the Bearcats.

Georgetown will look to return to its winning ways when it hosts UMBC on Tuesday at Shirley Povich Field at 3:00 p.m.