Tolbert Makes History As UAB Wins Game Two

Saturday, May 12

Houston, Texas

2:00 P.M.

UAB

20-27, 12-14

Rice

22-27-2, 10-14-2

UAB

RICE

Tolbert Makes History As UAB Wins Game Two

5/12/2018 6:30:00 PM | Baseball

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HOUSTON – A wire-to-wire lead propelled the UAB baseball team to 5-3 game two win on Saturday at Rice as the Blazers evened the series at one game each.

Tyler Tolbert made UAB history as the junior swiped his 23rd base of the season to move into the top-10 in a single season in UAB history.

"When he's on he's exciting," head coach Brian Shoop said. "He changes the pitches that are being called, he divides the attention of the pitcher because they are so concerned with him running and so much of the time they still can't do anything about it."

The win moved UAB back into eighth place in the Conference USA standings.

"That was a really neat effort by our guys," Shoop said. "This was pretty much a must win, we had our backs against the wall type game, but I thought our guys played loose and confident and great. Our hitters had 13 hits against a starting pitcher that had a 2.10 ERA and we had three-or-four guys with multiple hits with Antonio (Ralat) having three so it was a great day by him. It's so helpful when you can get the bottom of the lineup to chip in and keep the pressure on an opposing team. It was a great day offensively.

UAB (20-27, 12-14 C-USA) struck first for the second time in the series as Colton Schultz hit a one-out single up the middle in the first inning. A sacrifice bunt moved him to third before Brett Blackwood singled to score Schultz and give the Blazers a 1-0 lead.

Schultz saved a potential run in the bottom of the second inning as he made an acrobatic catch crashing into the wall to save the Owls' leadoff man from extra bases.

"Schultz's play, that rivals Cole (Collins) play at the beginning of the year," Shoop said. "It was a Sports Center Top-10, incredible play. I'm just praying he's healthy for tomorrow after crashing into the wall. We're just hoping upon hope that he's ok because he's playing pretty well for us."

Cole Collins led off the third inning with his fourth double of the season before Carter Pharis hit his 29th RBI of year into left field to score Collins and make the game 2-0 UAB.

In the fourth inning Thomas Johns led off the frame with a double up the middle. An Antonio Ralat single scored Johns to extend the Blazers' lead to three.

One batter later Tyler Tolbert reached on a fielder's choice. He historic swipe moved him to second, a throwing error by the Rice pitcher advanced him to third before he scored on a wild pitch to give the Blazers a 4-0 lead.

"If you think about that run it was a huge run for us," Shoop said. "He stole second, it was tremendous concern on Rice's mind because they thought he was stealing third that they threw it away and that put him in position to score on a wild pitch. We've told our guys all along that you're going to get opportunities for that because Rice throws so many sliders in the dirt that there's going to be a few you can move up on. We just need to get Tolbert on more because there's no question that he's a game changer. "

Rice (22-27-2, 10-14-2) cut into the UAB lead in the bottom of the fourth inning as it strung together consecutive hits with a UAB error in the mix to make the game 4-1.

The Owls went scoreless until the bottom of the seventh inning when Dominic DiCaprio hit a solo shot over the left field wall cutting the contest to 4-2.

Visintainer reached base for the third time in the game on a two-out walk in top of the eighth. Two batters later Tolbert singled through the right side to score Visintainer from second and give UAB a 5-2 lead.

The Owls made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth as the leadoff runner singled into left field. Consecutive balks moved him to third before the second single of the inning scored the runner and made the game 5-3.

Matthew Calvert entered the game with one-out and proceeded to retire the side ending the threat and left two runners on-base.

"It was really good by Matthew to come in there late, he's been pitching good for us lately but that was the toughest situation, highest stakes, he's probably been in since he's been at UAB," Shoop said. "The tying run was on first and the winning run was at the plate and he got both of his left handers out, they had four in a row coming up when we made the decision to go to Matthew and thankfully he only needed to face two of them."

A trio of Blazer arms' held the Owls to just three runs on seven hits with Ryan Ruggles earning his second win of the season after the starter went 6.0 innings with one run scored on four hits with a pair of strikeouts and no walks.

"Ryan (Ruggles), Carson (Jones) and Matthew (Calvert) all held Rice to three runs. That was a great win for our guys," Shoop said.

Ralat led the Blazers at the plate going 3-for-4. The junior has tallied at least three hits in three of his last four road league games.

Pharis turned in second multi-hit game of the series going 2-for-5 with a pair of runs scored. Pharis has 52 career multi-hit games with eight coming this season.

Collins also recorded two hits in the game going 2-for-5 with a run scored for his ninth career multi-hit game.

The Blazers will look to make history tomorrow becoming just the third team in program history, and first since 1996, to not lose a series on the road in a season. The rubber match is set for 1 p.m. at Reckling Park.

For more information on the UAB baseball team follow the Blazers on Twitter (@UAB_Baseball) or on Instagram (UAB_Baseball).