The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Southern Miss
Blazer Comeback Comes Up Short in 6-4 Loss
4/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 21, 2007
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The UAB baseball team scored three runs in the seventh, however left runners stranded in the eighth and ninth innings to allow Southern Miss to even the series with a 6-4 victory Saturday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park. Just down the road from his hometown of Purvis, Miss. third baseman Ryne Lovdahl led the Blazers with his 2-for-5 performance with one RBI and a run scored.
Southern Miss improves to 24-16 (5-9 C-USA) with the win, while UAB is now 18-23 (5-6 C-USA. The two teams will play the deciding game of the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Barry Bowden improved to 4-3 on the season after getting the win with his 6.0 inning, four strikeout outing, while UAB junior right-hander Mitch Kloskowski falls to 4-4 with the loss after giving up three runs.
Junior outfielder Phil Bell extended his career-long hitting streak to 12 games by going 1-for-4 at the plate with a run scored. Junior first baseman Ryan Keedy was 1-for-5 with two RBI coming on a double in the seventh. Junior Billy Lichtner was 1-for-1 as he had a pinch-hit single in the eighth.
Southern Miss hit a rare two home runs against the Blazers. Third baseman James Ewing had one of the homers to highlight his 2-for-4 day with three RBI and a run scored, while catcher Keith Winstead belted the other homer for his lone hit on the day.
Kloskowski struggled to find the strike zone at the start, throwing six of his first seven pitches for balls to walk first baseman Trey Sutton and then Ewing drilled a 2-0 pitch off the scoreboard in left field to give the Golden Eagles an early 2-0 lead in the first.
Kloskowski settled down to get the next three USM batters to pop out to end the inning.
The Blazers answered with some offense of their own in the top of the second. Lavdahl led off the inning with a ground ball single through the right side and then senior outfielder J.R. Bond drove the first pitch he saw to right-center field to put runners on second and third with no outs.
After senior catcher Danny Sawyer went down swinging, freshman shortstop Jonathan Merritt flew out to deep enough to right field to get Lovdahl in from third for the RBI-sacrifice fly and cut the deficit to 2-1.
Southern Miss went ahead 3-1 in the fourth when Kloskowski walked back-to-back runners which led to the end of his day and then freshman southpaw Shay Crawford allowed a single and then walked home a run that was charged to Kloskowski. Crawford got a key strikeout on a 2-2 count with the bases loaded to get out of the inning with limited damage.
A pair of Eagle doubles in the fifth extended the USM lead to 4-1. Center fielder Jody Blount doubled to lead off the inning and then left fielder Drew Carson hit a run-scoring two-bagger to left-center to drive him home.
Unfortunately for Crawford and the Blazers, Blount's run wasn't the only one to cross home in the fifth as Winstead drilled his first home run of the season high over the left field wall to take a 6-1 lead.
The Blazers staged a comeback in the top of the seventh. Junior second baseman Tyler Rollin was hit by a pitch to get things started and then sophomore outfielder Brint Hardy followed up with a walk. With the two runners on and one out, Bell came up and drew another walk to load the bases.
Keedy delivered the big blow in the inning with a two-run double to right-center field to score Rollin and Hardy and then Lovdahl drove in Bell on a fielder's choice to score the third run of the inning to cut the Southern Miss lead to 6-4.
UAB's comeback came up just short after failing to get one final rally going as three-straight fly outs to center field closed the book on the 6-4 Southern Miss victory.
The final and deciding game of the series will be played at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
