The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
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at Mississippi State
UAB Baseball Falls To Mississippi State, 6-5
3/30/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 30, 2004
STARKVILLE, Miss. - The UAB baseball team was defeated by Mississippi State, 6-5, as the Bulldogs got a one-out double in the bottom of the ninth for the win. The game was close all night, as the Blazers battled back to tie the game twice.
With the score tied at five, Mississippi State's Craig Tatum doubled Matt Fowles' (0-2) pitch into right field, and Jeffrey Rea came around from first to score the winning run.
UAB ran into a tough MSU bullpen, as Todd Doolittle shut out the Blazers in the final four innings. Doolittle (1-0) did not allow a hit and had eight strikeouts in the win.
The Blazers (14-10, 2-3) had a chance to take the lead in the top of the ninth inning. With Zac Ward on first and two outs, Dan Stucky grounded to third. MSU's third baseman Tyler Scarbrough threw the ball into foul territory. Brad Jones fielded the ball and threw home, allowing Tatum to tag Stucky out at the plate for the third out of the inning.
"I thought our guys gave real good effort," said head coach Larry Giangrosso. "The difference in the ballgame was when they brought Todd Doolittle into the game. He shut us down for four innings and you can't let that happen. We had been putting the ball into play the whole game until he came in. I thought our pitchers threw well, we just didn't do it."
Mississippi State (15-8) got on the board early, scoring two, two-out runs in the bottom of the first inning. UAB's Grant Addison gave up an infield single to start the inning, but then got two-consecutive strikeouts. The Bulldogs came back with an RBI single by Brad Corley that scored Rea. Two batters later, Joseph Hunter singled in Corley to give MSU the 2-0 lead.
The Bulldogs added another run in the bottom of the second, as a one-out error by Blazer second baseman Josh Miljavac allowed MSU's Tyler Scarbrough to come in from second, giving Mississippi State a 3-0 lead.
UAB came back in the top of the fourth inning, as the Blazers' Daniel Hill and Nathan McCorkle hit back-to-back home runs off the Bulldogs' Eric Ebers. Hill's bomb was his third of the season, while McCorkle's was his fourth this year.
The Blazers tied the game at three apiece in the top of the fifth inning. Shortstop Dan Stucky started the inning with a double to center field. The next batter, Miljavac singled him home to knot the game.
Mississippi State came right back in the bottom of the inning. UAB first baseman Hill made a nice play on a ground ball from the Bulldogs' Hunter, but threw the ball away, which allowed MSU's Corley to score his second run of the game, giving the Bulldogs the 4-3 lead.
In the top of the sixth, the Blazers' McCorkle led off with a walk from Ebers. McCorkle advanced on a wild pitch by Ebers and was singled in by Matt Womble, tying the score at four apiece. UAB took its first lead of the game when the next batter, Eugene Rodriguez singled in Womble for the 5-4 lead.
The Bulldogs tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, as Steve Gendron scored on Corley's single to center field off of UAB's Chris Thorup.
UAB will host Conference USA foe Houston this weekend in Birmingham. The first game, on Friday, begins at 7 p.m.
