East Carolina University
UAB
Pirates Drop Series Opener 11-2
May 17, 2007 | Baseball
May 17, 2007
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. - Mitch Kloskowski pitched his first career complete game and UAB capitalized on four East Carolina errors in an 11-2 win Thursday at Young Memorial Field in Conference USA action.
Kloskowski (5-5) allowed five hits, walked four, struck out six and his only mistake of the evening came when Kyle Roller took a two-out first pitch offering to right-center for his tenth home run of the year. After walking the bases loaded in the first inning with one out, he would retire the next 11 batters before giving up a single to Jamie Ray in the fifth.
Pirate starter T.J. Hose suffered the loss falling to 6-5 after working six innings, allowing five runs (one earned) on nine hits with three walks and two strikeouts before giving way to Mike Flye. Flye did not record an out as he faced three batters, gave up three runs on three hits in his 18th appearance. Chris Powell (1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 2 K) and Cody Leggett (1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R) saw action out of the pen.
In the top of the first inning, No. 29 ECU (35-19, 13-8) had a prime opportunity to push across some runs when they loaded the bases with one out. Ryan Wood, Ryan Tousley and Stephen Batts all drew walks, but the Pirates were unable to capitalize as Kloskowski fanned Roller and got Jake Dean to ground out to first.
UAB (24-30, 11-11) took an early 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a pair of Pirate errors and three consecutive hits down the left field line. Levi Patmon reached on a Wood throwing error to start the four-run rally. Phil Bell singled up the middle and both runners moved up 90 feet on Ryan Keedy's sac bunt. After a J.R. Bond line out to second, UAB plated four runs on a double by Danny Sawyer, a single by Ryan Lovdahl and another double by Jonathan Merritt.
Patmon put the Blazers up 5-0 with a single to left that scored Brint Hardy who lead off with a triple to right field. Brint skied a fly ball to right that was lost in the lights by Tousley to lead off the frame and then touched home on Patmon's at-bat.
Roller continued his hot hitting in the sixth with his two-run shot to right-center. Batts reached on a two-out bunt single down the third base line, extending his current hitting streak to 20 games. For Roller, it was his fifth home run in four games and sixth in the last 11. It is the second time this season that Roller has connected on long balls in four consecutive games.
UAB pushed across five runs in the seventh and another in the eighth to cap the scoring at 11-2. Lovdahl and Merritt each paced the offensive attack for the Blazers as they collected four hits each. Phil Bell (2-for-2), Danny Sawyer (2-for-5) and Merritt each drove in a pair of runs.
Offensively for the Pirates, Roller posted his eighth multi-hit game collecting two hits, while Ray, Batts and Corey Kemp recorded one.
The two teams will play game two of the three-game series Friday night when Dustin Sasser squares off against Grant Addison with a first pitch scheduled for 8 p.m. (EDT).
