The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
at Louisville*
Blazers Drop Game One at Louisville, 5-4
5/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 20, 2005
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- In a game that lasted nearly 24 hours from first pitch to final out, Louisville took a 5-4 victory over UAB in game one of each team's final Conference USA series at Patterson Stadium on Friday afternoon. The game began on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. but was suspended due to inclement weather after four innings. The Cardinals led 5-4 when the game was halted on Thursday and that would be the way it ended after five more innings of play on Friday. Louisville improves to 31-21, 14-13 in Conference USA while the Blazers slip to 30-24, 13-15 in league play.
Trystan Magnuson (5-5) picked up the victory for the Cardinals, shutting out the Blazers for four innings before Brian Halford finished off UAB in the ninth to earn his seventh save. Cole Helms (3-4) suffered the defeat for the Blazers, allowing four runs in just two innings.
After a 35-minute rain delay in the middle of the first inning, Louisville jumped out on top with three runs in the bottom of the first. With Boomer Whiting on third, Chris Cates on second and J.T. LaFountain on first, Logan Johnson ripped a bases-clearing, three-run double down the right field line.
The Blazers got on the board in the top of the third inning. Ryan Metcalf doubled leading off and Clint Toomey followed with a walk. With one out, Zac Ward lined a single into left field, bringing Metcalf home with UAB's first run. Nathan McCorkle then brought the Blazers within two runs with an RBI single through the right side of the infield which scored Toomey from second.
Trailing 5-2 in the top of the fourth, Toomey picked up his second hit of the game, an RBI single to right-center which scored J.R. Bond from second. Bond had reached on a single leading off the inning. Levi Patmon followed with a sacrifice fly down the right field line, scoring Metcalf to make the score 5-4.
After Louisville batted in the bottom of the fourth, another wave of severe thunderstorms swept through the Louisville area, causing the game to be put on hold until Friday afternoon at 4 p.m.
The teams returned to the field on Friday with the Cardinals leading 5-4, and the score remained that way with UAB threatening in the top of the ninth. With Patmon on second and Ward on first and just one out, McCorkle grounded a ball up the middle which Louisville secondbaseman Nick Haley stopped and flipped to second, forcing Ward with the second out. On the play, Patmon rounded third base and headed for home, but Jorge Castillo fired the ball to LaFountain at the plate and Patmon was called out, ending the rally and the game.
Game two between the Blazers and Cardinals is scheduled to get underway on Friday at 6 p.m.
