The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Tulane
UAB Plays Long Ball In 8-7 Win Over Tulane
5/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 8, 2009
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- UAB matched a season-high with five home runs Friday night on its way to an 8-7 win over Tulane in the opening game of this weekend's baseball series.
Andrew Manning hit two of the Blazer homers and drove in three runs for UAB (28-21, 9-9 C-USA), which earned its third straight Conference USA win. Tulane (28-22, 9-10 C-USA) left 15 runners on base as UAB pitchers worked out of jams all night.
The teams will continue their three-game series Saturday at 2 p.m. (CT) with game two at Tulane's Turchin Stadium.
UAB is now a half game ahead of Tulane in the league standings and owns the same .500 conference winning percentage as Southern Miss (11-11 C-USA) for a fourth-place tie. The Golden Eagles have just two C-USA games remaining, while the Blazers and Green Wave have five left.
Manning's first home run Friday -- a two-run shot -- came as part of a four-run second inning for UAB. Luke Stewart followed with his team-leading 13th homer as the Blazers went back-to-back, and Austin Taylor added another solo shot later in the inning. It marked the third time this season UAB has hit three home runs in one inning.
"I thought it was a great night offensively against a good pitcher that struck out 15 batters last Friday," UAB head coach Brian Shoop said. "It was a good win, but with the way everyone is bunched together in our league, we have to keep winning."
The big second inning coupled with single runs in the first and third helped UAB build a 6-0 advantage before Tulane found the scoreboard.
All six runs were charged to Tulane starter Jonathan Garrett, who took only his second loss of the season after pitching just 2.1 innings. Garrett struck out 15 batters in his previous outing last Friday against Southern Miss. Blake Huddleston earned the win in a relief effort for UAB to improve to 4-0 on the year.
The Green Wave scored a run in the third on a Jeremy Schaffer RBI single, but UAB starter Beau Pender then pitched out of a bases-loaded, one out jam to limit the damage to one run. Again in the fourth, Pender worked out of trouble, allowing another run but stranding Tulane runners at second and third.
The UAB pitching staff walked 12 batters in the game and found itself in trouble for much of the night but was able to pitch out of enough of it to maintain the lead.
Tulane's biggest inning came with three runs in the fifth, highlighted by a two-RBI single from Steve Moritz as the Green Wave cut UAB's lead to one run at 6-5. All three runs that scored in the inning off Pender and reliever Blake Huddleston were the result of walks.
Huddleston found himself in a jam again in the sixth when Tulane threatened to tie the game after a leadoff triple from Scott Powell. But Huddleston retired the next three batters without allowing a ball to leave the infield to keep Powell from scoring and maintain UAB's edge.
A pair of home runs from Jonathan Merritt and Manning in the top of the seventh extended the Blazer lead to 8-5.
Tulane threatened again in the seventh and eighth innings, scoring a run in each frame. But UAB reliever Mark McKinley pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh, and fellow reliever Colin McMurry stranded two Tulane runners in the eighth.
In the bottom of the ninth, Nick Graffeo came out of the Blazer bullpen to send Tulane down in order and earn his fifth save of the season.
"We want to be thrilled with this win, but we did walk 12 guys, and you can only win once in a great while when you do that," Shoop said. "That said, our kids really competed great tonight, and we made some big pitches when we had to make them."
Jamal Austin led UAB with three hits in the game, while Manning drew two walks in addition to his two home runs to reach base in four of his five plate appearances. Cody McMurry returned after missing a game with an ankle injury and also walked twice for the Blazers to raise his C-USA-leading total to 47.
The five home runs matched a season-high for UAB, which also went deep five times as a team March 13 against Harvard. At three hours and 43 minutes, Friday's game was the longest of the season for the Blazers.
