The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
#3 RICE
UAB Loses Game One to No. 3 Rice, 8-2
4/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 27, 2007
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The third-ranked Rice Owls, led by right fielder Jared Gayhart, scored eight runs on 16 hits to earn an 8-2 victory over the UAB Blazers at Young Memorial Field Friday night. Gayhart was a perfect 4-for-4 with two RBI in the game, while UAB outfielder Phil Bell extended his career-long hit streak to 15 games with his 3-for-4 effort that included a run-scoring double. The teams will play game two of the three-game series at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Rice has now won eight straight and is 35-11 (14-2 C-USA) on the year, while UAB drops to 18-26 (5-8 C-USA) with the loss.
Owls right-hander Matt Langwell (4-1) earned the win on the mound after going 7.0 innings, allowing two earned runs and walking just one batter.
UAB junior right-hander Mitch Kloskowski (4-5) got the loss after his 5.1 innings pitched in which he struck out four and gave up four runs.
Senior outfielder Levi Patmon and freshman shortstop Jonathan Merritt each recorded multiple hits in the game. Senior outfielder J.R. Bond was 1-for-4 at the plate and had a busy day in center field where he made eight putouts.
Aside from Gayhart's performance, Rice also got strong offensive showings from shortstop Brian Friday who was 3-for-5 with two stolen bases and first baseman Joe Savery who was 2-for-5 with an RBI.
Rice put two runners on with no outs in both the first and second innings, however Kloskowski got himself out of trouble for the most part, allowing no runs in the first and then giving up just two runs in the second.
Friday drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly to center field and then Gayhart singled to left field to score designated hitter Aaron Luna and give the Owls a 2-0 lead.
Rice extended its lead to 3-0 in the fourth when Gayhart singled to left to get on base and then came around to score when Savery took a 1-1 offering from Kloskowski to right field for an RBI-single.
The Owls went on to add five runs in the sixth through eighth innings with the eighth being the biggest inning after the club got three runs on five hits to increase their advantage to 8-0.
The Blazers got on the board in the bottom of the eighth when Patmon led off the inning with a single to Friday at short and then came in to score on a double to left field by Bell. Bell then came in to score the second run of the inning on a single through the right side of the infield by junior first baseman Ryan Keedy to make it 8-2.
The two teams will play game two of the three-game series at 2 p.m. at Young Memorial Field on Saturday.
