The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Marshall
Blazer Bats Struggle In Series-Opening Loss To Marshall
4/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 9, 2010
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Marshall scored four times in the eighth inning Friday to break open a tie game on the way to handing UAB a 7-3 loss in game one of this weekend's Conference USA baseball series at Young Memorial Field.
The Blazer offense struggled to get going with just three hits on the night as the team lost for only the third time in its past 14 games. Despite the hitting woes, UAB still had scoring opportunities as the result of 11 Marshall walks, but the Blazers left a total of 12 runners on base.
Victor Gomez collected a game-high three hits for Marshall, while Kurt Lipton drove in a pair runs. In addition to the four-run eighth inning, the Thundering Herd scored three in the fifth as Marshall tallied seven unanswered runs after an early UAB lead.
"Their pitchers were too good for us tonight," UAB head coach Brian Shoop said. "Their hitters came up with timely hits, and they deserved to win. It's going to be a tough night any time you have as many errors as you have hits, and that was the case tonight."
UAB (18-10, 4-3 C-USA) and Marshall (12-16, 3-4 C-USA) continue their three-game series Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. The contest will air live in the Birmingham area via the Blazers ISP Sports Network on WJOX-AM 690, while fans can also follow the game online through Gametracker live stats and All-Access streaming video at uabsports.com.
Friday's game featured sloppy play at times from both teams. In addition to the 11 walks by Marshall pitching and four by the Blazers, the teams also combined for six errors, two hit batters, two wild pitches and a passed ball.
Nine of the Marshall walks were issued by starter Ian Kadish, and six of those came in the third inning as the Blazers jumped out to a 3-0 lead with the benefit of just one hit. John Frost managed a single, but UAB scored its runs on bases-loaded walks from Ryan Ussery and Andrew Manning and tacked on another when Luke Stewart scored on a passed ball.
Despite the three runs, the Blazers still left the bases loaded in the third, and they later came up empty on a bases-loaded, one-out opportunity in the sixth. Marshall's Tyler Gatrell came out of the bullpen to pitch the Herd out of that sixth-inning jam and went on to throw two and two-thirds scoreless innings to earn the win.
Marshall matched UAB's three-run third inning with three in the fifth. A two-out, two-RBI triple from Lipton put the Thundering Herd on the scoreboard, and Gomez followed with a single to plate Lipton and tie the game at 3-3.
All three runs were charged to UAB starter Mitch Kloskowski, who took a no-decision, leaving the game after four and two-thirds innings. Ben Bullard took over for Kloskowski and pitched scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh before surrendering three of the four eighth-inning runs to suffer his first loss of the year.
A one-out walk to Ben Jurevicious started the eighth-inning Marshall rally. Jurevicious later came home to score the go-ahead run on a wild pitch, and the Thundering Herd tacked on three more on RBI singles from Alfredo Brito and Josh Valle.
Though he had just one hit, Jamal Austin reached base four times for UAB as the result of two walks and an error, and he also stole his league-leading 15th base of the season. Ussery drew a game-high three walks for the Blazers.
