The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Kennesaw State
UAB Cools Off Kennesaw State with 10-3 Win
3/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 16, 2007
KENNESAW, Ga. - Another strong outing by sophomore right-hander Mitch Kloskowski allowed the Blazers to hang around long enough to explode for 10 runs in the final three innings to earn a 10-3 victory over Kennesaw State at Stillwell Stadium Friday night. Senior third baseman Ryne Lovdahl went 4-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored to help the Blazers improve to 9-9.
Kennesaw State, which was fresh-off a win over No. 21 Georgia Tech on Wednesday, drops to 12-8 with the loss.
Sophomore outfielder Brint Hardy got back on track Friday night, going 3-for-5 with three RBI, while junior first baseman Ryan Keedy was 2-for-5 with one RBI. Junior outfielder Phil Bell was 2-for-5 with a run scored.
Kloskowski earned the win to improve to 3-1 on the year after he went 7.0 innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out a career-high five batters. Sophomore righty James Oliver finished the game, throwing 2.0 innings and striking out one.
Chad Jenkins gave the Owls six innings of scoreless baseball before Bubba Blalock came in and allowed four runs to earn the loss.
Shortstop Jacob Robbins extended his hit streak to 35 games by going 1-for-3 in the game.
Kennesaw State was the first to light up the scoreboard when, in the fourth inning, the Owls took advantage of some fortunate bounces when center fielder Martin Baker reached on a bunt single that bounced away from Kloskowski towards first base and then left fielder Jay Morrow reached on a walk to put runners on first and second with no out.
With two on, a balk by Kloskowski moved the runners to second and third and both come around to score on an RBI single by third baseman Matt Dallas to make it 2-0.
Kloskowski showed great poise to get out of the fourth, retiring three-straight batters to avoid the big inning and get out of the jam.
KSU's Jenkins was replaced by Blalock who came in and walked two of his first four batters faced to put two runners on with two outs for Lovdahl who came up and lined an RBI-single to cut the deficit to 2-1. In stepped senior outfielder J.R. Bond who dribbled a grounder to short where Robbins couldn't handle it after Dallas screened him by trying to cut off the ball from third, allowing Bond to reach first and load the bases.
Looking to even the game, senior catcher Danny Sawyer came to bat and drew a full count and took ball four to score Keedy and tie the game at 2-2. Eyeing its first lead of the game, UAB went ahead on a two-run single by Hardy that scored Lovdahl and Bond to open up a 4-2 Blazer lead.
Still in the seventh, Sawyer scored the final run of the UAB big inning when he came home on a play that sophomore second baseman Allen Aubin reached on the second Robbins error of the inning to give the Blazers a 5-2 advantage.
The Blazers kept the runs coming in the eighth. Bell led the charge when he reached on a one-out single and was then joined on base by Keedy who followed with a single of his own. With two on, Lovdahl came to the plate and drove in Bell on an RBI-single to center field to give UAB a 6-2 edge.
After Bond went down swinging to record the second out of top half of the eighth, Sawyer dug in and launched a two-run double to left field to score Keedy and Lovdahl and then Hardy followed with an RBI single up the middle to cap-off the four-run eighth inning to make it 9-2.
Keedy helped add a final insurance run in the ninth when he doubled home Turner to make it 10-2.
The Blazers and the Owls will play game two of the three game series at 1 p.m. CST on Saturday.
