University of Houston
UAB
Baseball Drops Second Straight at UAB on Saturday
4/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 19, 2008
Houston-UAB Game Book (April 19, 2008) in PDF Format 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UAB jumped out to a 4-1 lead after three inning and never looked back in taking a 9-4 win over the 19th-ranked University of Houston baseball team Saturday during the middle game of a Conference USA series Saturday at Young Memorial Field.
It was second straight loss for the Cougars to the Blazers, who earned their first C-USA series win against UH since 1997, when both teams began competing in Conference USA.
For the second straight game, the Cougars jumped out to an early lead but were unable to stop the Blazer offense. UAB scored at least one run from the second to the fourth innings with at least two runs in three of those frames.
Freshman centerfielder Zak Presley went 2-for-3 with an RBI to extend his career-high hitting streak to 11 straight games, while junior DH Jimmy Cesario batted 2-for-5 with two runs and a solo homer. Senior outfielder Bryan Tully also batted 2-for-4 with a run to lead the Cougars, who were outhit 12-8
Nick Crawford went 2-for-4 with a run, while Ryan Keedy batted 2-for-3 with a run. Cody McMurry batted 2-for-4 with a run, double and two RBIs, and Luke Stewart went 2-for-4 with a run, homer and two RBIs to pace the Blazers.
UAB starter Mitch Kloskowski earned the win and improved to 3-2 after allowing four runs off eight hits and four hits with a pair of strikeouts in seven innings.
UH starter Ty Stuckey fell to 2-3 after giving up four runs off five hits and two walks with two strikeouts in 2.2 innings.
With the loss, the Cougars fell to 24-14 overall and 7-4 in C-USA games. UAB improved to 17-21 overall and 3-8 in league games.
The series wraps up at 1 p.m., Sunday. Fans can hear all Cougar Baseball games live at UHCougars.com by clicking the appropriate links. Jeremy Branham will call the play-by-play action while former letterwinner Pat Cauley provides color analysis.
Fans always can follow live stats by clicking on the Gametracker link.
It only took the Cougars two batters to grab a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Blake Kelso led off with a triple off the base of the wall in right field and scored easily when Jake Stewart lifted a sacrifice fly into right field.
In the second inning, Stewart smashed a two-run homer to right field to hand the Blazers a 2-1 lead.
The Blazers pushed their advantage to 4-1 in the third inning when McMurry laced a two-run double to right center.
The Cougars cut the lead down to 4-2 in the top of the fourth. After Tully's single to right field and Austin Goolsby reached on a fielder's choice, Presley lined an RBI-single up the middle.
UAB pushed its lead back to three runs in the bottom of the frame when Allen Aubin scored from third on a ground-ball double play.
In the fifth inning, Cesario blasted a one-out solo home run to right field to trim the UAB lead to 5-3.
Again, the Blazers answered in the bottom of the frame with three more runs of their own. After the bases were loaded, Phil Bell scored from third when Stewart grounded into a double play. Keedy then scored an unearned run from third on a Cougar infield miscue. Aubin followed with a looping single into center field that plated Brint Hardy for an 8-3 UAB lead
In the seventh inning, Cesario led off with a triple down the right-field line and scored when Ryan Lormand grounded out to shortstop to trim the UAB lead to 8-4.
However, that would be as close as the Cougars would get the rest of the way. In the eighth inning, Bell led off with a home run to right field.
