Alabama Baseball Falls to UAB 7-6, Blazers Take Season Sweep
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It was the final $2 Tuesday of the season at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, but low-price tickets and hot dogs were about the only things Alabama baseball fans had to celebrate on the evening as the UAB Blazers downed the Crimson Tide by a score of 7-6.
With UAB having already beaten Alabama back on March 23 at Regions Field in Birmingham, the Blazers competed the season sweep with Tuesday night's victory.
"I feel like I could probably just hit rewind from virtually every Tuesday that I come in here," Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon said. "It starts at the top. Obviously I'm doing an incredibly poor job of getting us ready to play on Tuesday.
"We've tried everything. We've tried taking a day off before, we've tried the light practice, we've tried the hard practice and nothing's worked. Even a couple of times that we've won on Tuesday, we really haven't played very well."
On the season, the Crimson Tide is 6-5 in midweek games with two left on the schedule.
Alabama was the first to post a run on the scoreboard when designated hitter William Hamiter was walked with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third to force left fielder Tommy Seidl across the plate. With the bases remaining loaded, right fielder Andrew Pinckney singled down the left field line, scoring two more runs to give the Crimson Tide a 3-0 lead heading into the fourth.
UAB didn't take long to retaliate, with shortstop Matthew Golda hitting a grand slam over the right field wall to give the Blazers a 4-3 lead.
An RBI-single by Alabama first baseman Drew Williamson in the bottom of the fourth tied things up at 4-4, and a sac-fly by second baseman Bryce Eblin gave the Crimson Tide a one-run advantage in the bottom of the fifth.
The Blazers weren't done yet. In the top of the sixth, UAB drew a bases-loaded walk of it's own to tie the game before an infield RBI-single put the Blazers back up by a run once again.
In the bottom of the seventh, a wild pitch with runners on second and third advanced both baserunners, with Hamiter crossing the plate for the game-tying run. With a 6-6 score, the Crimson Tide and the Blazers pressed onwards to the eighth.
In the UAB side of the eighth, Blazers left fielder Logan Braunschweig reached first on a fielder's choice with runners at the corners. The play scored yet another run for UAB, giving the Blazers a 7-6 edge.
The seventh run for UAB would ultimately prove the final run of the game, and the Blazers took home the 7-6 victory.
"We played poorly," Bohannon said. "We didn't deserve to win. We didn't really do anything well. You can't walk 'em eight or nine times, you can't chase sloppy off-speed pitches out of the strike zone, you can't miss 90-mile-per-hour fastballs.
"Kind of just the same thing that we've all seen: incredibly consistent effort on Tuesday. We can't pitch Garrett McMillan every day."
For UAB, relief pitcher Aidan Moza (2-0) was credited with the win on the mound. Alabama reliever Brock Guffey (2-1) was saddled with the loss.
With the loss, Alabama drops to 23-15 on the season. UAB rises to 23-13 with the win. Up next, the Crimson Tide will host the No. 10 Georgia Bulldogs in a three-game SEC series beginning on Friday (6 p.m. CT, SEC Network+).
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