Blazers Split the Day in Greenville

Friday, March 7

Greenville, S.C.

1 p.m.

UAB

10-3

Michigan State

11-2

UAB

Michigan State

Todd Clay

Blazers Split the Day in Greenville

3/7/2025 11:03:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

GREENVILLE, S.C. - UAB (11-3) split the day at the First Pitch Invitational in Greenville. The Blazers dropped game 1 to Michigan State, 5-2, but came back to beat Winthrop in game 2, 9-7.

GAME 1
Michigan State jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st thanks to a two-out two-run home run by Sam Busch.

Both teams were held scoreless until the bottom of the 5th when Jake Dresselhouse singled to bring home Caleb Berry to add to the Spartans' lead.

Busch homered again in the bottom of the 6th to put the Spartans up 4-0.

Cole Cheatham (2-2) got the start for the Green and Gold. The senior southpaw tossed 5+ innings but did not get any run support on the day. Cheatham picked up seven strikeouts in those 5+ innings.

UAB got on the board in the top of the 7th thanks to a Gavin Lewis Jr. RBI base hit to bring home Wesley Helms.

In the bottom of the 7th, MSU answered right back with a home run by Berry for the Spartans' final run of the day.

The Blazers weren't done yet as Nick Hollifield drove home Lewis to put the Blazers within three in the top half of the 9th. Logan Braunschweig singled through the left side later in the inning to extend his American Conference leading on-base streak to 41 games. The Blazers rally would falter as the Spartans held on to win, 5-2.

GAME 2
The Blazers' second game of the day shared nothing similar to Game 1.

Winthrop (8-6) got off to a hot start in the top of the 1st. Preseason Big South Player of the Year Koby Kropf hit a 2-run home run to open the scoring. Cole Yearsley would add another run in the inning to put the Eagles up three.

With the bases loaded in the top of the 3rd, Yearsley hit a ball to no-man's land in shallow right field, but not long after the ball dropped the Blazers got a force out at second to limit the damage.

That's when the Blazers offense woke up. Nick Hollifield's first of two RBI base hits came in the bottom of the 3rd when he singled to score Ty Mauldin from second. Later in the inning, Tyler Waugh singled to score Hollifield to cut the Winthrop lead to 4-2.

Both teams were scoreless from that point until the bottom of the 5th. With two on and nobody out, Hollifield delivered again, this time singling to right to bring home Gavin Lewis Jr. to trim the Eagle lead to one. Two batters later, Tyler Waugh reached on an infield single to bring home Braunschweig to tie the game at 4. With the bases still loaded, Camden Hayslip came up and hit a grand slam to right for his second home run of the season and put the Blazers up 8-4.

Braunschweig has now reached base safely in 42 consecutive games.

Winthrop began to mount a comeback in the top of the 7th. With two outs, a pop fly on the infield was dropped to cut the lead to 8-5.

In the top of the 8th, Josh Skowronski took the first pitch of his pinch-hit appearance over the left center field wall to trim the UAB lead to 8-7.

The Blazers got a much needed insurance run in the bottom half of the 8th thanks to Tyler Waugh's fourth hit of the day to make it 9-7. Waugh finished the day going 4-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored.

Ryan Olson came in and retired three of the final four batters of the game for the Blazer victory and earned his third save of the season.

The Green and Gold return to action tomorrow at noon ET/11 a.m. CT against Cornell at Fluor Field on ESPN+.

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