The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Southern Miss
Late Surge Leads Southern Miss Past UAB, 11-5
5/18/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 18, 2012
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The UAB baseball team held a 5-1 lead entering the top of the eighth, but Southern Miss crossed home 10 times over the last two innings to earn an 11-5 come-from-behind victory on Friday night at Young Memorial Field.
The two teams will square off in the rubber match on Saturday with first pitch slated for 1 p.m. CT. UAB will start right-hander Alex Luna, while USM will counter with lefty Mason Robbins.
“When you have a four run lead in the eighth, you have to be able to win that game,” head coach Brian Shoop said. “But we had a leadoff walk in the eighth and a leadoff walk in the ninth and those often come back to bite you and they did tonight. Southern Miss deserves a lot of credit. They had 10 hits in the last two innings and kept coming and got on a roll and were unable to stop them.”
After only scoring three runs in Thursday night’s ball game, the two teams combined to score three in the first inning alone. Dillon Day (4-for-5) led off the game with a triple to center field and scored on a Michael Sterling infield single to account for the first USM (29-23, 13-10 C-USA) run of the evening.
UAB (29-26, 9-14 C-USA) countered with two runs against USM starter Jake Drehoff, when Ryan Ussery roped a two-run double into the right-center field gap to hold a slim one-run edge.
Chase Mallard, who allowed one earned run on five this in 4.1 innings and four strikeouts, fell into a jam in the fifth. USM loaded the bases with one out and lefty Dylan Munger was called upon out of the Blazer bullpen. The southpaw recorded a strikeout and ground out to escape the threat.
Momentum carried over the next half inning for the Blazers, as Munger’s pitching sparked the Blazer offense. Ivan De Jesus laced a double in front of Patrick Palmeiro rocketing a two-run bomb to push the UAB lead to 5-1.
Unfortunately for the Blazers, the USM offense caught fire in the last two innings, scoring 10 times off 10 hits to hold on for the 11-5 victory.
Cameron Giannini (3-3) earned the win out of the bullpen for the Golden Eagles. The righty went 3.2 innings, giving up only one run off three hits.
For UAB, Ryan Nance (3-3) was saddled with the loss.
On offense, Chase Davis added a pair of hits out of the leadoff spot, while Palmeiro and Ussery each knocked in a pair.
