University of Houston
<b>UAB</b>
Baseball Drops Series Opener vs. UAB on Friday
4/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 6, 2007
Houston-UAB Boxscore (April 6, 2007) in PDF Format
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HOUSTON - UAB scored nine runs through the first four-and-a-half innings and never looked back in taking a 10-5 win over the University of Houston baseball team Friday during the first game of a Conference USA series at Cougar Field.
The two teams were tied through three innings before the Blazers struck for a combined seven runs in the middle three frame. UAB took the lead for good with a single run in the fourth inning and added four runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to take control of the game.
UAB starter Mitch Kloskowski earned the win and improved to 4-2 despite allowing five runs off eight hits with five strikeouts in six innings.
UH starter Aaron Brown collected the loss and fell to 4-2 after surrendering six runs (five earned) off 10 hits with two strikeouts in four innings.
Felix Fanaselle and Josh Stirneman each went 2-for-4 with a run and RBI, while Jimmy Cesario finished the night 2-for-4.
Jonathan Merritt went 4-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs, while J.R. Bond batted 3-for-4 with two doubles, three runs and a pair of RBIs to lead the UAB offense, which outhit the Cougars 15-10. Levi Patmon went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Danny Sawyer batted 2-for-4 with a run, double and RBI in the winning effort.
With the loss, the Cougars fell to 15-14 overall and 3-1 in C-USA games. UAB improved to 16-16 and 4-0 in C-USA games.
The Cougars continue the series at noon, Saturday before wrapping up at 1 p.m., Sunday. Fans should note that Saturday's game time was moved up to noon on Friday afternoon to avoid the threat of wet weather in the Houston area.
Fans can hear Cougar Baseball games live on UHCougars.com with former Cougar letterwinners Nick Torina and Pat Cauley calling all the action. Fans can follow live stats by clicking on the "Gametracker" link on the front page of UHCougars.com or on the Schedule and Results page off the Baseball main page.
Redshirt freshman southpaw Wes Musick will make his team-leading ninth start in the middle game of the UAB series. This season, the Lufkin native has compiled a 4-3 record with 38 strikeouts and a 3.11 ERA in 46.1 innings of work. He leads all Cougar hurlers in ERA and strikeouts while ranking second in innings pitched. In addition, his win total is tied for the staff lead.
In his last start, Musick was impressive in helping lead the Cougars during the middle game of the UCF series on March 25. He struck out a UH-season-best tying 10 batters during a career-best-tying eight shutout innings while scattering five hits during a 3-0 Cougar win.
He retired 10 of 11 batters early in the game as the Cougars built a 3-0 lead but remained strong, retiring eight of the last nine batters he faced.
Saturday's game will be Musick's first career appearance against UAB.
UAB is scheduled to counter with freshman southpaw Shay Crawford, who has compiled a 3-1 record with 18 strikeouts and a 4.13 ERA in 32.2 innings.
The Blazers struck quickly for the game first runs, plating two on J.R. Bond's, two-out, two-run single to center field.
The Cougars tied the game in the second inning with a pair of runs. Stirneman slapped a one-out single into right field and moved all the way to third following Bryan Tully's double down the left field line. After Stirneman scored on Flores' groundout, Tully knotted the game at 2-2 on a wild pitch.
UAB regained the lead in the fourth inning on Patmon's infield RBI-single. The Blazers broke the game open in the fifth inning with four runs, thanks to a passed ball, an RBI-double from Sawyer and RBI-singles from Merritt and Patmon.
The Blazers pushed their lead to 9-2 in the sixth inning with two more runs, courtesy of Allen Aubin's pinch-hit sacrifice fly and Merritt's RBI-single.
The Cougars added a single run in the bottom of the frame on Stirneman's RBI-single.
In the seventh inning, UH added two more runs, thanks to RBI-singles from Zak Presley and Fanaselle to trim the UAB lead to 9-5.
UAB pushed their lead back to 10-5 in the eighth inning after a Cougar miscue in the outfield for the final margin of victory.
