The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Florida Atlantic
UAB Loses to FAU in Two-Day Rubber Match
3/26/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Box Score
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The UAB baseball team fell to Florida Atlantic in the finale of a two-day affair on Sunday afternoon. The Blazers dropped the game 9-5 and fall to 14-10 on the year and 3-3 in Conference USA. The Owls take their second conference series of the year and improve to 16-7-1 and 5-1 in C-USA.
The game, which began on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., had to be halted after the sixth inning due to rain and was postponed until noon on Sunday.
The Blazers walked a season-high 13 batters in the game while giving up nine hits.
“The kids are human and 18 to 22-year olds who don’t have a good day every day,” said UAB head coach Brian Shoop. “That’s not what we’ve done on a routine basis but it was the story of this game.
UAB jumped ahead early with a RBI single from Stephen Dobbs with runners on the corners. Colton Schultz crossed the plate to put the Blazers up 1-0.
FAU went ahead in the following frame with a two-run home run from Pedro Pages. The Owls followed with two more runs in the top of the third and another run in the fourth.
Carter Pharis gave the Blazers a sign of life with a solo blast to left field towards the scoreboard. The homer was Pharis’ first of the year and third of his career.
The Owls would have a quick answer once again as they plated two runners in the top of the sixth with a two RBI single by David Miranda. The game was called for the day due to rain.
A wild seventh inning led to five runs by the two schools combined when play picked back up on Sunday at noon. The Blazers allowed the first four batters to reach which led to a pair of runs for the Owls. Austin Thomas retired the next three batters in order to get UAB out of that situation.
The Green & Gold bats tried to dig out of the 9-2 hole in the bottom of seven. Brewer Hicklen led off with a double and advanced to third on what seemed to be a routine fly ball from Pharis was dropped by the right fielder Miranda. Pierce Ressmeyer’s sacrifice fly scored Hicklen from third and the Blazers put runners in scoring position following a walk by Dobbs and advance on a wild pitch by both Pharis and Dobbs. Riley McCown followed with a single up the middle to plate Pharis. Dobbs would come around to score on a fielder’s choice in a pinch-hit at-bat by Jared Nixon and put the score to the final of 9-5.
Hicklen had a 2-for-5 line and extends his hitting streak to 13-games. Pharis homer was his only hit of the day in five at-bats while scoring two runs.
Dobbs and Antonio Ralat each added a pair of hits as well, the former going 2-for-4 with a run and RBI while the latter was 2-for-3.
Garrett Whitlock earned the loss after initially taking the mound to start Saturday. He drops to 3-2 after throwing two innings with three hits, four runs, four walks, and two strikeouts.
Jake Miednik was credited with the win for FAU. He threw all six innings on Saturday allowing six hits, two runs, four walks, and striking out five. Miednik now stands at 3-1 this year.
The Blazers will return home for a Tuesday match against nearby rival Samford. The two teams are slated for first pitch at 6:30 p.m. at Regions Field
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).
