The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Savannah State
Stewart Homers Twice In Blazers' 11-5 Victory Friday
3/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 27, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Shay Crawford struck out a career-high 10 batters Friday night, and UAB defeated Savannah State 11-5 in the first game of a three-game weekend series at Young Memorial Field.
Offensively, Luke Stewart homered twice -- his sixth and seventh of the year -- and Digger Towe drove in four runs on three hits.
UAB improved its record to 12-10, while Savannah State fell to 14-12. The teams will meet again Saturday for the second game of the series. The start time for that game has been moved from 2 p.m. CT to 5 p.m. CT to allow the field to dry from expected heavy overnight rains.
Crawford shut Savannah State out through the first five innings Friday, facing just one over the minimum during that stretch. The Tigers finally got some offense going with three runs in the sixth inning, but Crawford got out of the frame with an 8-3 lead in tact on his way to his third win of the season.
"We really need Shay to do well for us," UAB head coach Brian Shoop said. "Hopefully he gained some confidence from his performance tonight and can carry that over into his start next weekend."
UAB built its lead with a run in the third inning and another in the fourth before exploding for six runs in the fifth. Towe plated two of those runs with a single, and Stewart hit his first homer of the game to score two more. Brint Hardy recorded an RBI single in the inning, and a bases-loaded balk from Savannah State accounted for the other run.
"The team that can put together a big inning wins almost every time," Shoop said. "We had trouble early getting the barrel on the ball, but it was good to see us start to center some balls and get some things going."
The Blazers put the game out of reach with three more runs in the seventh on back-to-back home runs from Towe (a two-run shot) and Stewart (a solo blast). It marked the second time this season UAB has hit back-to-back homers in a game. Andrew Manning and Stewart combined to do it March 13 against Harvard.
Savannah State tacked on a run in the eighth inning and an unearned run in the ninth to cut the final margin to six runs.
Jonathan Ross collected a pair of hits and drove in two runs for Savannah State, while Andrew Mendez and Matthew Oglesby each added an RBI. Robert Ramsdale took the loss on the mound, surrendering eight runs -- six earned -- in 4.1 innings.
For UAB, Mark McKinley threw a scoreless seventh inning in relief, and Blake Huddleston came out of the bullpen to pitch the final two frames.
Each team stole three bases in the game, and Hardy picked up his Conference USA-leading 21st steal of the season. The senior outfielder entered the week ranked third in the country in stolen bases.
More than 25 service men and women were in attendance at Friday night's game. The group of injured veterans is in town for the U.S. Paralympic Military Sports Camp, organized by Lakeshore Foundation's Lima Foxtrot Program for Injured Military and the United States Olympic Committee's Paralympic Military Program. Alabama native, 1st Lt. Brian Hicks threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
