The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Memphis
UAB Baseball Drops Series Finale To Memphis 6-1
4/17/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 17, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB baseball team suffered a 6-1 loss Sunday afternoon to Memphis in this weekend's series finale at Young Memorial Field.
Memphis starting pitcher Clayton Gant worked seven innings and allowed just one run on five hits to help the Tigers complete a three-game series sweep.
UAB dropped to 20-16 (6-6 C-USA) with the loss, while Memphis improved to 22-14 (6-3 C-USA). The Tigers became the first opponent to sweep the Blazers at home since East Carolina in 2009.
Patrick Palmeiro led UAB with a 2-for-4 effort at the plate, while Ryan Nance drove in the Blazers' run with a sacrifice fly in the third inning. That was all the offense UAB could muster against Gant, who faced no more that four batters in any other inning.
By the time UAB found the scoreboard, Memphis had already built a 5-0 lead. The Tigers put up runs in the first two innings on an RBI single from Phillip Chapman and a sacrifice fly from Drew Martinez. Memphis then pushed its lead to five with a three-run third, tallying four of its 10 hits in the inning and getting the aid of two UAB errors.
David Hayes, who took the loss, worked into the third but left with one out and turned things over to Blake Huddleston. The Blazer reliever allowed the final two runs of that third inning but then surrendered just one more rest of the way. He finished out the game, matching his career-high with seven strikeouts in 6.2 innings.
"We were down 5-0 before we could blink and that's tough to come back from," UAB head coach Brian Shoop said. "David didn't find out until this morning that he was going to start, so he was kind of rushed into it, and that's a hard thing to do."
Memphis tacked on its sixth run of the day in the sixth inning on a solo home run from Robby Graham, and Tiger reliever Sam Moll worked the final two shutout innings to finish out the game. Graham led all players with three hits.
The Blazers struggled to bounce back from a tough Saturday, in which Memphis came from behind to win both games of a doubleheader in extra innings.
"There are games you're just going to lose, and this was one of them," Shoop said. "That's why it hurts when you lose those games that you really have a chance to win."
In addition to Palmeiro, UAB also got hits from Nick Crawford, John Frost, Harry Clark, Ryan Ussery and Keith DePew in Sunday's game.
Blazer pitching held the nation's top hitter, Chad Zurcher, without a hit for the second game of the weekend. UAB limited Zurcher to a .083 average (1-for-12) for the series as his average dropped from .531 to .488.
The Blazers are back in action Tuesday with a midweek trip to Troy for a 6 p.m. CT contest before returning home next weekend for a three-game conference series with Rice.
