A sloppy evening at Cliff Hagan Stadium on Wednesday saw the Cats play even sloppier.

For the first time since 2007, the Cats (15-7, 3-3 Southeastern Conference) lost to a non-conference opponent at home, dropping a 12-6 decision to Cincinnati.

The Bearcats jumped on UK from the start, but the game remained close for the first four innings thanks to three combined errors in the first three innings. In all, the teams combined for five errors.

“It certainly was sloppy,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said. “Sometimes kids are influenced by their surrounds, by their environment, and I think looking at both sides tonight it certainly was a long ways from a clean, crisp game.”

A disastrous fifth inning for the Cats, in which Cincinnati scored four runs, was what turned the game around. After getting the first two batters out, the Cats allowed the Bearcats to reel off four hits and take a 7-3 advantage in a game that had previously been dictated by slopping fielding and pitching.

“I think we lost concentration on the mound with two quick outs,” Henderson said. “We just flat out lost concentration and when you do that over a very, very short period of time the complexion of the game changes.”

The Cats cut the four-run deficit in half in the seventh inning without getting a hit. A combination of erratic pitching and fielding allowed the Cats to put five runners on base, but the recent trend of leaving men on base doomed the Cats once again as they left two more stranded.

Cincinnati responded to the Cats’ seventh by putting up four runs in the eighth inning in what all but sealed the ball game.

“I think you’re always concerned when you don’t play well,” Henderson said. “We’re not at a point where we can just let a poor performance run off our back and just call it ‘good.’ It’s the same as any game, you try to learn from it, you try to get better, but you’re always concerned when you don’t play well.”

The Bearcats, who were coming off an 11-5 win against Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday, knocked the UK pitching staff around the park throughout the rain-soaked evening. Junior right-handed pitcher Clint Tilford began the evening for the Cats, going three innings before getting pulled. By the evening’s end, the Cats went through six pitchers, none lasting longer than three innings.

A bright spot in a gloomy game was the continued emergence of sophomore second baseman Chris Bisson at the plate. Bisson extended his career-high hitting streak to 12 games, with one hit and two walks in his five plate appearances, but said the Cats need to put forth a better effort on the diamond.

“We’re met with failure right now with three straight losses,” Bisson said. “It’s just something that we really have to overcome, that’s what tough teams do. If you look in the MLB, if you look at basketball teams, all that stuff … good teams lose, it’s just what you do after that.”

For the young Cats, consistency on the mound will be something they will attempt to acquire as they begin to get into the thick of the SEC schedule. The Cats will enter Friday’s game against South Carolina coming off three straight losses, including two straight losses to non-conference opponents for the first time since 2007.

“You’re absolutely looking to find consistency on the mound, in the batter’s box and in the field,” Henderson said. “You practice, educate, talk, coach, teach — you do all of it and you hope it shows up as soon as possible.”