CINCINNATI SPORTS LAST WEEK

On Monday night, the Bengals hosted the Ravens at Paul Brown Stadium before a national audience on ESPN. It was a very hard fought, injury filled performance by the two AFC North foes. In the end, Baltimore gave the ball to Cincinnati too many times and the Bengals prevailed 27-20.



On Tuesday, the Reds and Cardinals met in GABP with Matt Belisle pitching for Cincinnati. Adam Dunn took things into his own hands. He homered in his first at bat and hit a grand slam the next time up. The final score was 7-2. On Wednesday night the Reds made it two in a row over the Red Birds. With Bronson Arroyo pitching and Edwin Encarnacion and Brandon Phillips hitting, Cincinnati banged out a 5-1 victory. EE was 2 for 4 with 3 RBIs including his 13th homer. Phillips was 2 for 4 including his 29th homer. On Thursday afternoon, Aaron Harang authored a sweep of the Cards with a 5-4 win which was his 15th of the season. David Ross hit his 16th homer of the year. The Reds announced today that Josh Hamilton is done for the year with a hamstring injury.

In high school football this weekend, Dayton Carroll dumped Fenwick 33-14, Hamilton shocked Lakota East 25-10, Finneytown edged Mariemont 7-3 and Edgewood bopped Wilmington 35-14. La Salle upset Elder 28-19 to scamble the GCL.

On Friday night, the Reds started their last road trip of the year. Thirty year old rookie, Tom Shearns went to 3-0 by shutting down the Milwaukee Brewers and Adam Dunn hit his 39th homer of the year in the 6-5 win.



On Saturday afternoon, the UC Bearcats traveled to Oxford to take on the Miami Redhawks. Miami lost to Big Ten Minnesota in three overtime periods last week. The Cats handled them easily although they gave up their first touchdown of the year. Final score was 47-10 and moved them to number six in the Sagarin ratings behind LSU, USC, Florida, Ohio State and West Virginia. Next weekend they take on Marshall at Nippert.

On Saturday night, the Reds were going after their fifth win in a row and were hoping to further dash the Brewers chances of winning the division. Kirk Saarloos was called from the bull pen to start the game. Saarloos gave up three runs in four innings and the offense just couldn't get a hit when they needed one. The streak was broken by a 5-3 score.

On Sunday, the Reds and Matt Belisle just couldn't get it going. They actually out hit the Brewers but couldn't push the runs across and ended up losing 5-2. They end the week at 68-81, in fourth place in their division and 9.5 games behind the Cubs. And now, on to Chicago, to play the Cubs.



With the Bengals in Cleveland on Sunday, everything happened in an NFL game exactly as you would expect it. The team that got embarrassed the week before came back with a vengeance. The team that had a tough Monday night game the week before could not maintain its intensity. Its sad but true. The offense put up big numbers but that is not enough to win when your defense is barely awake and your special teams are sleepwalking. The 51-45 final was not an aberration. Next up are the Seattle Seahawks.