TicketsBearcats Come Up Short Again At UAB
UC outhits Blazers, 11-9
Contact: Shawn Sell
4/23/2005
Logan Parker had two hits and two RBI Saturday at UAB. |
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.---Missed opportunities haunted Cincinnati for the second straight day as the Bearcats left a season-high 14 men on base in a 4-3 loss to UAB on Saturday afternoon at Young Memorial Field.
As they did in Friday?s opener, UC outhit UAB, this time by an 11-9 mark, but again came up just short. The Bearcats got the tying run to third base with two out in the ninth, but UAB reliever Ryan Huffman got Jack Nelson to bounce out the first to end the contest.
UAB is now 25-14 and 10-7 in Conference USA, while the Bearcats fall to 16-19, 5-11 C-USA. Jeff Brown (6-2) got the win for the Blazers despite allowing 10 hits in six innings of action. Justin Minges (1-2) was solid for the Bearcats allowing just four runs (two earned) and seven hits in five innings of work. Huffman worked the last two innings for his third save.
Mark Muscenti, Brian Szarmach and Logan Parker all had two hits each for the Bearcats, with Muscenti and Parker each recording doubles. UAB got two hits apiece from J.R. Bond and Cole Helms.
Cincinnati got an early start to its scoring getting a Jon DeLuca RBI single in the first that scored Muscenti. UAB would tie the game in its half of the second when Helms lifted a one-out homer to left.
After Minges worked out of trouble later in the second, the senior settled into a groove, retiring seven straight batters. He ran into trouble in the fifth as UAB broke the game open with a three-run attack. Rush Knight led the inning off with a single and moved to second on Ryan Metcalf?s sacrifice bunt. Clint Toomey broke the tie with a single up the middle, bringing up Levi Patmon. With a runner on first and one out, Patmon chopped a potential double play ball to Parker at first. Parker made the throw to second, but the ball hit Toomey in the back and flew into left field, allowing both runners to move up. Nathan McCorkle followed with an RBI ground out and Bond?s RBI double capped the scoring inning.
UC made a push to get within a run in the seventh, starting the frame off with Muscenti getting hit by a pitch and Mark Haske singling. Two outs later, Jim Olds drew a walk to load the bases for Parker. The junior college transfer came up and dropped a two-run single to left center that scored Muscenti and Haske. But Adam Price got Nelson to fly out to left to squelch the threat.
In the ninth, DeLuca started with a walk and moved up to second on Olds? sacrifice. Parker grounded out to second, moving DeLuca to third, where he would be stranded on Nelson?s groundout.
The Bearcats will try to avoid being swept when the series wraps up tomorrow. First pitch in Birmingham is set for 1 p.m. CT.