The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
at LSU
UAB Handled By No. 2 LSU, 7-3
3/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 5, 2005
BATON ROUGE, La. -- LSU starting pitcher Clay Dirks had a no-hitter through six innings and picked up his team-leading fourth win of the season as the second-ranked Tigers defeated UAB, 7-3, on Saturday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium. The Blazers are now 6-5 on the season while LSU improves to 11-2 and goes for the series sweep on Sunday.
Dirks faced the minimum through his season-high seven innings of shutout work, and allowed the Blazers just one hit, a single by centerfielder Clint Toomey leading off the top of the seventh. Dirks also finished the afternoon with a season-best seven strikeouts.
Jeff Brown suffered his first loss of the season, allowing nine hits and five earned runs in six innings pitched for UAB.
Leading 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth, the Tigers extended their lead. Designated hitter Blake Gill reached on an error by UAB second baseman Seth Rollin, then moved to second when Clay Harris followed with a sharp single through the left side of the infield. The next batter was Nick Stavinoha who hit a hard grounder to third base which Zac Ward stopped but could not make a play on, loading the bases with no outs. Will Harris then came through with his second run batted in of the game, an RBI groundout to third which plated Gill. Another infield hit three batters later by Michael Hollander scored Clay Harris and gave LSU a 3-0 advantage.
After the Tigers scored four more times and took a 7-0 lead, the Blazers finally got on the board with a run in the top of the eighth. Nathan McCorkle drew a leadoff walk from LSU reliever Chris Cahill and came around to score when Phillip Bell lined a two-out RBI double down the left field line.
The Blazers would score twice in the top of the ninth on an RBI double by Dan Stucky and RBI single by Zac Ward, but the game ended with LSU coming out on top, 7-3.
The third and final game between the Blazers and Tigers is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium. UAB righthander Randy Mills will take the mound against LSU's Greg Smith. Follow the action live on your computer with Gametracker at www.uabsports.com
