The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
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UAB Suffers 3-2 Loss In Friday Baseball At Utah
5/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 20, 2011
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SALT LAKE CITY -- The UAB baseball team dropped a 3-2 decision to Utah on Friday as the teams finally got to take the field at Spring Mobile Park after a Thursday rainout.
Patrick Palmeiro went 3-for-4 for the Blazers, but UAB managed to push across just two runs courtesy of a third-inning double from Nick Crawford, who moved into second place on UAB's career games played list.
Back-to-back home runs later that inning from Utah's C.J. Cron and Shaun Cooper gave the Utes a one-run advantage that held up the rest of the way.
UAB dropped to 27-26 with the loss, while Utah improved to 28-18. The teams will close out the regular season Saturday with another 12 p.m. MT (1 p.m. CT) first pitch.
"Our pitching kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win, but we weren't able to score enough runs," UAB head coach Brian Shoop said. "We really didn't give ourselves many opportunities to score out there today."
After the early inning scoring, Friday's game turned into a relief pitchers' duel. UAB's Ben Bullard tossed four scoreless innings in relief of Ryan Woolley, who surrendered the three Utah runs. Woolley suffered the loss but left the game early on a pitch count to stay fresh for next week's Conference USA tournament.
Utah relievers Joe Pond and Tyler Wagner combined to hold UAB to just two hits over the final five innings in relief of starter Rick Anton, who allowed two runs in four innings and was credited with the win.
Cron entered the game as the nation's second-leading hitter, but Woolley and Bullard managed to get him out in three of his four at-bats. One of those, however, was an RBI groundout in the first inning. After his solo shot in the third, Bullard struck him out in his final two plate appearances, including the last time with the bases loaded in the seventh to keep Utah from expanding its lead.
James Brooks led Utah with a 3-for-4 day at the plate, while Austin Shackelford and Trey Nielsen each had a pair of hits for the Utes.
UAB was just not able to generate much offensively. With the exception of the two-run third inning, Utah pitchers faced just two over the minimum in the other eight frames combined.
The Blazers managed to put the tying run on base with two outs in the ninth after Palmeiro's third hit of the day, but Wagner struck out Andrew Manning to finish off the win for Utah.
Crawford has now played in 220 career games at UAB and is three shy of the school record held by Kristin Metheny (1989-92). He also ranks third in career starts with 216, just two behind Jonathan Merritt (2007-10) for second place and six behind Metheny for first.
