CINCINNATI, Ohio - Looking to bounce-back from a close loss a day ago, the University of Evansville baseball team put together one of its most complete performances of the season in a 6-4 victory over Xavier on Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati, Ohio.

On the mound, senior right-hander Max Hansmann got the start for the Aces and earned his second win of the year, pitching 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits, while registering seven strikeouts. The Aces went to freshman righty Tanner Graham in relief, who tallied his third save of the season with 3.2 innings of work, allowing just one run and striking-out four Musketeers. Offensively, Evansville was powered by a pair of home runs, the first off the bat of redshirt sophomore Charlie Longmeier and the second from junior Reid Haire. Longmeier's day was not just limited to power as the designated hitter finished the day a triple short of the cycle, recording three total hits and a pair of RBI.

Solid pitching dominated the first two innings for both sides as Hansmann and Xavier starter Jack Nobe, who recorded a pair of scoreless frames to open the contest. The first bit of offense for either side came from Aces freshman right fielder Benji Kautto. Seeing his first collegiate at-bat after an injury held him out to start the season, Kautto smashed a triple off the wall and proceeded to score off a wild pitch to give the Aces a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third.

Just a few at-bats later, Longmeier added on to the Evansville advantage, hammering his second home run of the season, this one a two-run no-doubter to right field that handed UE a 3-0 lead after the third.

Hansmann continued to hang zeroes on the board in the fourth and fifth innings as Evansville's offense again added to its lead in the fiftth frame. Haire got the scoring started for UE with a solo homer to center field, his fourth of the season. The Aces were able to continue to put men on base throughout the fifth when sophomore Ryan Seddon chopped a ball to second base that was bobbled and thrown wide of the bag at first and out of play, allowing both Longmeier and Drew McConnel to score, lifting Evansville's advantage to 6-0.

In the bottom of the fifth, Xavier was able to do its first damage, scratching across a run on an RBI double by Clay Burdette, but Hansmann limited the pain to just a run.

The Aces again ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth as the Musketeers put a pair of runners on with no outs. With the bases loaded, Hansmann's valiant outing came to a close after 112 pitches after a run was walked in cutting the Evansville lead to 6-2. Graham relieved Hansmann out of the pen, facing bases loaded with just one out. Graham immediately steadied the ship, getting his first batter to groundout with just one run scoring and striking-out the next batter he faced to get out of the inning with Evansville in front 6-3.

For the second-straight inning, Xavier placed its first two runners on without an out, but again it was Graham who limited the damage, allowing just one run before getting out of the jam.

Despite Evansville's offense cooling off, the lead proved to be enough for the Aces as Graham limited the Musketeers to just one base-runner over the final two innings as UE evened the weekend series with a 6-4 victory.

Evansville and Xavier will close-out their series with a rubber-match on Sunday at Noon in Cincinnati, Ohio.