The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Tulane
Tulane Out-Slugs UAB Sunday To Win Series
3/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 30, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB Blazers scored plenty of runs Sunday afternoon but came up short against Tulane as the Green Wave held on for a 12-10 victory at Young Memorial Field to close out a 2-1 series victory. UAB third baseman Luke Stewart and catcher Allen Aubin combined to go 7-for-10 with two homers and six RBI as the eight and nine hitters for the Blazers.
Tulane improves to 18-8 (2-1 C-USA) with the win, while UAB falls to 9-15 (1-5 C-USA).
Stewart led the Blazers by going 4-for-5 with four runs scored, a home run and two RBI. Aubin was 3-for-5 with four RBI and a homer.
First baseman Ryan Keedy ran his current hit streak to 18 games by going 2-for-4 with his 15th double of the year. Left fielder Phil Bell matched his career-best hit streak of 15 games by going 1-for-4.
Designated hitter Austin Taylor also had multiple hits in the game, finishing the day 2-for-5 with a run scored.
Tulane catcher Jared Dyer had struggled at the plate in the series until Sunday when he went 3-for-5 with five RBI and three runs scored, while hitting his fourth home run of the season.
Right fielder Drew Allain was 3-for-5 with three runs scored.
Jonathan Garrett (2-1) earned the win on the mound for the Green Wave despite allowing seven runs in 5.0 innings in his sixth start of the season. Preston Claiborne tallied his second save of the campaign after closing out the final 4.0 innings in which he allowed three runs and struck out five.
Trey Vice (0-1) was the losing pitcher Sunday after throwing just 1.0 inning and giving up five runs in his first career start as a Blazer.
Tulane set the tone early by plating five runs in the first inning. Dyer doubled home two runs to get the scoring started and then center fielder Aja Barto hit a two-run home run to left field. Third baseman Rob Segedin doubled home the final run of the inning to take the 5-0 lead.
UAB chipped away at the Green Wave lead in the second when Stewart doubled home right fielder Brint Hardy and then Aubin laced a two-run single to left field to allow Stewart and Taylor to score and close the gap to 5-3.
The Green Wave added a run to its lead in the third and then, in the fourth, took an 8-3 lead. Allain singled to lead off the eighth and then scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by designated hitter Andrew Rodgers. Second baseman Seth Henry doubled down the left field line and then scored the second run of the inning when Hardy dropped a fly ball in right field.
In the bottom half of the fourth, Stewart and Aubin both singled to get on base and then cut the Tulane lead to 8-5 by scoring on a walk by second baseman Nick Crawford and a sacrifice fly by Bell, respectively.
Tulane went on to open up a 12-5 lead in the sixth thanks to a three-run home run of the left field scoreboard by Dyer.
The Blazers slowly chipped away at the Green Wave lead the rest of the way by getting a two-run homer by Aubin in the sixth and then scoring two more runs in the eighth on a balk and a run-scoring ground out by Keedy to make it 12-9.
In the ninth, Stewart hit a two-out solo home run over the right field wall to cut the deficit to 12-10 before Claiborne got Aubin to fly out to end the game.
Up next for the Blazers will be a trip to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday before hosting the Crimson Tide at Regions Park on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. For tickets to Wednesday's game, call 975-UAB1.
