The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Baseball Falls To Mississippi State At Regions Park
4/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 7, 2009
HOOVER, Ala. -- UAB struggled to get things going offensively in Tuesday night's baseball game at Regions Park, and the Blazers fell to Mississippi State, 10-0.
Mississippi State pitchers combined to hold UAB to just five hits in the game while becoming the first staff to shut the Blazers out since Alabama did it Feb. 28, 2007. Starter Ricky Bowen pitched the first six innings and surrendered three hits while striking out five and walking five on his way to the win. Lee Swindle allowed just two hits over the final three innings in relief.
UAB's Colin McMurry, making his first collegiate start, took the loss despite allowing just two runs in his four innings of work. He struck out four batters and walked just one. Mississippi State did the majority of its damage in the middle innings against the Blazer bullpen.
Offensively, UAB's five hits came from five different players, while Grant Hogue led Mississippi State with three hits. Jet Butler hit a grand slam and drove in five runs for the Bulldogs.
With the loss, UAB falls to 16-14 on the season. Mississippi State improves to 17-15. The Blazers are back in action Friday at 2 p.m. (ET) with the first game of a three-game Conference USA series at Marshall.
In Tuesday's game, Mississippi State carried a 2-0 lead through the fourth inning. After Colin McMurry left the game, the Bulldogs took control with three runs in the fifth off Tristan Farrell and four more in the sixth off Blake Huddleston.
Mississippi State scored its fifth-inning runs on an RBI single from Butler and a pair of sacrifice flies from Connor Powers and Cody Freeman. The Bulldogs' seventh-inning scoring came with one swing of the bat thanks to Butler's grand slam.
"Our bullpen was really overused against East Carolina," UAB head coach Brian Shoop said. "Those guys had to throw a lot of innings in that series over the weekend, and it came back to bite us tonight."
UAB had a scoring opportunity with the bases loaded in the fourth and another with runners at the corners in the sixth. But, in both instances, there were two outs, and Bowen retired the next batter to end the threat.
The Blazers put a runner on second with one out in the eighth inning after a single and a stolen base by Cody McMurry, but Swindle induced back-to-back ground ball outs to keep UAB off the scoreboard. For the game, UAB left nine runners on base.
Cody McMurry, the Conference USA walks leader, drew two more walks Tuesday to reach base in three of his four plate appearances. He has now drawn 35 free passes on the season in 30 games.
Mark McKinley was the bright spot out of the UAB bullpen, holding Mississippi State scoreless in his two innings of work in the seventh and eighth. McKinley struck out three batters and did not allow a baserunner.
The Bulldogs tacked on their final run of the game in the ninth inning on a sacrifice fly from Frank Rawdow.
