The head coach of Cincinnati’s baseball team, Brian Cleary, likes to have a lot of firepower in his lineup, just in case the Bearcats need a big inning.

So when the Bearcats found themselves tied 5-5 with bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning, Cincinnati junior left fielder Brian Szarmach dug in on the 2-0 pitch and sent the ball out of the park for his second grand slam in three days’ time.

“When you can have one swing and change the momentum of the game, I think it’s a difficult thing for the team on the wrong end of it to overcome,” Cleary said.

Georgetown Head Coach Pete Wilk had a different take on things. “[Freshman] Darren Sizemore was throwing the ball pretty well, we were playing good small ball with hitting and running and bunting, but we didn’t make defensive plays when we had to and then [Cincinnati] got the big dinger. The wheels really came off in about 10 minutes,” he said.

That grand slam on Sunday was the nail in the coffin of Cincinnati’s three-game sweep of the Georgetown baseball team. The Hoyas lost by scores of 13-3, 18-2 and 9-5.

“Any time we go on the road and take two out of three [against Seton Hall last weekend], even with some blips on the radar and bumps on the road, we are pretty confident we can do some damage,” Wilk said of his team’s mindset entering the series.

“But we didn’t even come close.”

Last weekend’s series in Cincinnati marked a crossroads for both the Hoyas and the Bearcats, as both teams entered the weekend with the same conference record (5-7), hanging near the edge of the top eight, the number of teams that will be invited to the Big East tournament in a month’s time.

Cincinnati (24-15, 8-7) emerged with three wins, jetting from eighth to fourth place. Georgetown, meanwhile, has now dropped five games in a row to fall to 17-24 and 5-10 in the Big East, good for 11th place.

Cincinnati, like Georgetown, has been struggling with injuries to its pitching staff, so the Bearcats had two freshmen, right-hander Steve Blevins and southpaw Dan Osterbrock, make starts, and they both came away with wins.

Blevins lasted for a complete game in Cincinnati’s 13-3 win Friday, upping his record to 7-3. He struck out six in his outing.

On Saturday, Osterbrock held Georgetown to two runs in seven innings as the Hoyas lost 18-2.

“I really feel like . we can count on them to keep us in the game every time they’re on the rubber,” Cleary said.

“Saturday was awful,” Wilk said. “We walked 12 guys. You can’t beat a little league team putting that many men on base.”

Georgetown’s starting pitchers struggled all weekend – all three gave up at least seven hits – but the Sizemore brothers did their best to save the bullpen, both going for six innings.

Still, senior Stephen Burns gave up six earned runs in 3.2 innings on Saturday, and freshman Andy Ferich followed that with four earned runs in just one-third of an inning.

The Bearcat offense just would not let up. In addition to Szarmach’s two grand slams – the first one came during Cincinnati’s 9-5 win on Sunday – teammate Logan Parker went 5-for-12 on the series, with seven runs and seven RBIs. Parker earned a nod to the Big East honor roll for his prolific offense.

Wilk pointed to free base runners, walks and hit batsmen, as one of the principle reasons that the Bearcats were able to be so successful offensively.

Georgetown can make up some ground with its league series coming up at South Florida (19-22, 8-10). The Bulls are in eighth place, the last safe spot, so the Hoyas can move into contention with at least two wins.

“[This weekend] was frustrating, but I am confident we can bounce back,” Wilk said. “We’ve got some hard work to do schedule wise.”

But before Big East play resumes on the weekend, the Hoyas have to take care of two non-conference games. Today, Georgetown plays host to Coppin State at Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda, Md. at 7 p.m. Then the Hoyas move to Arlington, Va., where the George Washington Colonials play baseball, for a match at 2:30 p.m.

Earlier this season, Georgetown defeated Coppin State 9-3 on arch 8. The Hoyas face the Colonials exactly a week after losing to them 8-3.

Big East Notes: Notre Dame’s winning streak has hit 22 straight games, an all-time record. Leading the Irish has been senior first baseman Craig Cooper, who has his own 21-game hitting streak.