The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Southern Miss
Blazers Fall to Southern Miss, 3-0
4/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The UAB baseball team fell to Southern Miss, 3-0, Friday night at Pete Taylor Park.
"Alex (Luna) really wasn't bad," head coach Brian Shoop said. "Alex is a pitch-to-contact guy and is great when you defend behind him, and we had two errors in the (second) inning and they got three runs. We pitched well."
The Golden Eagles' (16-11-1, 5-5 C-USA) starter Cody Carroll went into the ninth, and exited after 8 1/3 with two hits allowed and 10 strikeouts vs. the Blazers (18-11, 6-5 C-USA).
"The story of the night was Cody Carroll," Shoop said. "That was as good of an outing as we've had thrown against us all year. He threw hard, he threw strikes, and he threw breaking pitches for a strike. We went from a leadoff single to not another hit until the ninth and got overmatched. We made a great run at them and I thought we had a really legitimate shot. Defense let Alex down tonight and their guy was really, really good."
Chase Davis had UAB's first hit, a single into right in the first at-bat of the game. From there, Carroll settled in didn't allow anything until Nathan Vincent led off the ninth with a single into left to ignite a late Blazers run. Esteban Tresgallo drew a one-out walk, as did Adam Lau to setup the bases loaded, before Southern Miss brought in relief pitcher Ryan Milton. A strikeout and popup to first then ended it, splitting the series, 1-1.
Luna threw four innings in his start, allowing eight hits and three runs, all unearned, giving way to freshman reliever Ryan Ruggles. He tossed the remaining innings, and allowed just three hits and struck out four in the final four frames.
Southern Miss posted a 3-run second, all unearned, taking advantage of two Blazer errors totaling four hits in the frame. After a leadoff hit, Ryan Ellis reached on an error, before a single into center plated the first run. A single into left in the next at-bat made it 2-0, before a two-out single up the middle gave Southern Miss a 3-0 lead that would be the final tally.
The UAB defense turned two more double plays Friday night, bringing its C-USA leading total to 33 on the year.
The two teams return to Pete Taylor Park in the rubber match of the series Saturday at 2 p.m.
For more information on the UAB baseball team, follow the Blazers on Twitter (@UAB_Baseball). For more on all Blazer sports teams follow the official Twitter account of UAB Athletics (@UABAthletics).
