The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
#19 Houston
Blazers Keep Rolling, Beat No. 19 Houston Saturday
4/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 19, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - For the second straight day the UAB baseball team slugged past the 19th-ranked Houston Cougars at Young Memorial Field Saturday afternoon, earning a 9-4 victory. Mitch Kloskowski earned his fifth win of the season after giving the Blazers seven quality innings.
UAB improves to 17-21 (3-8 C-USA) with the victory, while Houston is now 24-14 (7-4 C-USA) and still in second place in the Conference USA standings.
"I'm just proud of our guys in how they keep fighting and keep improving and that's a really good thing," said UAB head coach Brian Shoop. "I thought the energy was down in the first inning and I hardly ever rally our team together during a game and I did after that first inning because I felt that we had too good of an opportunity here today and the energy level and passion needed to come up and it really did."
Kloskowski (5-3) earned the win on the mound after allowing four runs on eight hits in 7.0 innings. Beau Pender closed out the final two innings, allowing no runs and no hits.
Ty Stuckey (2-3) got the loss as Houston's starter after giving up four runs in 2.2 innings.
Third baseman Luke Stewart had another outstanding day at the plate for UAB, going 2-for-5 with two RBI which came on his second two-run home run of the series. Center fielder Cody McMurry was 2-for-4 with two RBI.
First baseman Ryan Keedy and second baseman Nick Crawford each finished with two hits and a run scored in the game.
Eight of the nine UAB starters scored at least one run in the game.
Houston was led by designated hitter Jimmy Cesario who went 2-for-5 with a home run and a triple.
After Houston took a 1-0 lead in the first, UAB went ahead 2-1 in the second on the two-run home run to right field by Stewart. The Blazers then extended their lead to 4-2 in the third when McMurry hit a double to right-center field to score shortstop Jonathan Merritt and Crawford.
Houston cut the Blazer lead to 4-2 in the fourth when center fielder Zak Presley singled home right fielder Bryan Tully. UAB came back to score a run in the bottom half of the inning as catcher Allen Aubin came in to score on a double play ground out by Merritt to give the Blazers a 5-2 advantage.
In the fifth, Cesario's solo home run cut the Blazer lead to 5-3 and the Cougars continued to threaten, but a sliding catch by left fielder Phil Bell in foul territory got Kloskowski and the Blazers out of trouble with two runners left on base.
The Blazers then took an 8-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth with Bell scoring the first run of the inning on a double play ground out by Stewart and then a throwing error on Cougar shortstop Blake Kelso allowed Blazer right fielder Brint Hardy to reach base and score Keedy.
Hardy then scored the final run of the inning on an RBI-single by Aubin.
Houston got one run home in the seventh when Cesario tripled and then scored on a ground out by second baseman Ryan Larmand which cut the UAB lead to 8-4.
UAB went on to chalk up one more run in the bottom of the eighth when Bell hit a lead off home run to right field to extend the lead to 9-4.
The third and final game of the series gets underway at 12:00 p.m. at Young Memorial Field on Sunday. The game can be heard locally on 690 AM WSPZ.
