The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Houston
UAB Baseball Solid On Mound, At Plate In 11-6 Friday Win
4/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 30, 2010
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Mitch Kloskowski held the Houston offense at bay Friday night, and eight Blazers recorded a hit in an 11-6 series-opening victory over the Cougars at Young Memorial Field.
UAB catcher Harry Clark and first baseman Luke Stewart each collected three hits and two RBI, and Stewart blasted his team-best 13th home run of the season. Second baseman Nick Crawford hit his first homer of the year as one of seven Blazers to drive in a run in the victory.
"We've had our best batting practice of the year the past two days," UAB head coach Brian Shoop said. "It was great yesterday in practice, and our BP before the game tonight was unbelievable. You always wonder if that's going to carry over, but we squared a lot of balls up tonight."
UAB (22-18, 6-7 C-USA) and Houston (17-24, 4-9 C-USA) will resume their Conference USA series Saturday with a doubleheader starting at 11 a.m. CT as the final two games of the series have been moved up because of impending weather.
In Friday's game, Kloskowski pitched seven solid innings, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out five batters and walking only one to earn his fourth win of the year.
The only blemishes for Kloskowski came on a pair of fourth-inning solo home runs from Houston shortstop Blake Kelso and right fielder Zak Presley. He bounced back strong and finished his outing by holding the Cougars without another run over his last three frames, including his third one-two-three inning of the night in the seventh.
"It all starts on the mound, and Mitch only walked one guy," UAB head coach Brian Shoop said. "He allowed the two home runs, but when they're solo shots, you're in pretty good shape. I thought he was starting to lose it in the sixth, but he said he had one more inning in him, so we sent him back out for the seventh and he was great."
By the time Houston found the scoreboard, the Blazer bats had already staked Kloskowski to a lead on the strength of a five-run first inning. UAB sent 11 batters to the plate against Houston starter Michael Goodnight, highlighted by a two-RBI single from Clark. Houston committed two errors in the inning as four of the runs were unearned against Goodnight, who suffered the loss.
After the solo homers from Stewart and Crawford in the middle innings, UAB put up three runs against Houston reliever James Conlee in the seventh on a run-scoring single from designated hitter John Frost and a two-RBI double from right fielder Ryan Ussery to extend its lead to 10-2.
Houston did some damage late with four eighth-inning runs against the UAB bullpen, and the Blazers tacked on one more in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI double from Jonathan Merritt to complete the scoring.
Merritt, who drove in two runs in the game, finished with two hits, as did Frost and center fielder Jamal Austin. UAB finished with 15 total hits, matching its highest output of the season in conference play.
Presley went 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored to lead Houston. Center fielder Joel Ansley also had a pair of hits for the Cougars, while Houston left fielder Caleb Ramsey had his 21-game hitting streak snapped.
With Friday's victory, Shoop moved one win closer to the 800th of his career. He now owns 796 career victories.
