The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Florida Atlantic - Game 1
Blazers and Owls Split Opening Day of Series
3/24/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Final Stats (PDF) – Game One | Game Two
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The UAB baseball team took the first game of a doubleheader against Florida Atlantic on Saturday before falling in the nightcap. The Blazers won the first contest 6-2 while the Owls took game two 6-3. The Green & Gold is 14-9 overall and 3-2 in Conference USA while FAU is now 15-7-1 and 4-1 in conference.
Game three between the two teams has been scheduled for 12:30 p.m. tomorrow at Young Memorial Field after originally being slated for 2 p.m. at Regions Field.
“Well-pitched, we squared up a lot of balls, played well, and deserve to win,” said UAB head coach Brian Shoop on game one. “Two good teams, two good games, rubber match tomorrow.”
Game One – UAB 6, FAU 2
The Blazers pounced early in the first game with a pair of runs in the third inning due curtesy of Brewer Hicklen. After Price Visintainer singled up the middle to leadoff, Hicklen stepped to the plate two batters later with two outs. The sophomore centerfielder fell behind in the count 1-2, but turned on the fourth pitch to notch his fourth home run of the season over the left field wall.
UAB added three more runs on five hits and one error in the bottom of the fifth. Visintainer would once again be the individual to get things started for the Blazers with a single. He advanted to third on a single by Ralat who advanced to second on the play. Visintainer was then able to score when the FAU catcher tried to pick-off the junior and the ball went down the left field line. Hicklen followed with a single to put runners on the corners again. Ralat would be plated on a wild pitch and Hicklen scored on a Carter Pharis single.
The Owls would rebound with two runs in the top of the sixth but it would be the only runs they scored in the game. The Blazers added one more run in the bottom half of seven as Pharis scored Ralat on a single to right field.
Thomas Lowery earned his second straight win in the start. The senior pitched six innings, giving up seven hits, two runs, one walk, and striking out four coming off a complete game one-hitter five days ago.
“That asks a lot of Thomas to comeback after a complete game on Sunday to comeback on five days,” said Shoop. “Usually our guys on our seven days, and not even knowing it was going to happen before today. He’s just tough, he’s a bulldog.”
Carson Jones earned the save pitching three innings of one-hit ball. It was the junior’s third save of the 2017 campaign.
Game Two – FAU 6, UAB 3
UAB nearly mounted a comeback in game two but a five-run deficit created in the second inning by FAU proved to be too much of a hole for the Blazers to come out of.
The Owls big inning came via four hits and two hit by pitch, including HBP coming with the bases loaded to score a run.
The Green & Gold showed resiliency by scoring one run in each the third, fourth, and fifth innings. However, the Blazers would never cut it closer than 5-3 as the Owls tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh. UAB was held hitless over the final four innings.
“I thought we killed balls early,” said Shoop on the second performance. “I thought we hit the ball on the button at people. To me, the game had a feel that we were going to come back and win that game until the seventh. Our at-bats the last three innings were not good and he dominated us the last three innings. Five-run inning is tough to overcome but the mood in the dugout was that we had a shot.”
Alex House earned the win for FAU, throwing a complete game and conceding four hits, no walks, and racking up 10 strikeouts.
Ryan Ruggles was credited with the loss after allowing the five runs in the second. His record falls to 2-3 this season after posting a line of four innings, six hits, one walk, two hit batsmen, and two strikeouts.
Visintainer finished with a loaded stat line as he hit 3-for-6 with four runs, a triple and hit by a pitch.
Hicklen extended his current hitting streak to 12 straight games as he collected three hits, the home run, two runs, and a pair of RBI on the day.
Pharis was 3-for-8 across the day with two RBI. His multiple hits in the first game was the ninth time in the last 10 games the sophomore first basemen had at least two hits in a contest.
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 social media accounts of UAB Athletics on Twitter (@UAB_Athletics), on Facebook (Facebook.com/UAB.Blazers), on Instagram (@uab_athletics) or on Snapchat (@uabathletics).
