UAB Evens Series With Herd Baseball

April 10, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Kirby Pellant laced two extra-base hits and Isaac Ballou smoked a solo homer for Marshall, but UAB scored six times in the bottom of the sixth to even the series with a 12-4 victory at Young Memorial Field on Saturday afternoon.

Pellant finished the day 2-for-4 notching a double, triple and run scored as Marshall sits at 12-17 overall and 3-5 versus Conference USA squads.

UAB (19-10, 5-3 C-USA) received a solid outing on the bump from starter Beau Pender (4-1). The righty went 8.0 innings scattered three earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts and no free passes.

Pender sent the first seven batters of the Thundering Herd lineup down in order, until centerfield Ballou came to the plate. The freshman took a 2-1 offering from Pender deep and gone over the right-centerfield wall, his second of the season, to hold a 1-0 edge in the top of the third.

Herd starter Mike Mason (2-5) was equally effective retiring seven of the first eight batters that stepped in the batter's box, including three strikeouts in a row before No. 9 hitter Mikael Saway. The Blazers' leftfielder smoked a solo shot to almost the same spot that Ballou's bomb went the previous half inning. As the lineup turned over, Jamal Austin reached base on an infield single and scored on a John Frost RBI single through the left side to give UAB a 2-1 lead.

The Blazers added two more runs in the fourth with a two-out rally against Mason. After the southpaw registered two quick outs, two consecutive Blazers reached. Leadoff hitter Austin laced a two-run double out reach of diving right fielder Justin Maynard, putting the Herd in a 4-1 hole.

In the top of the sixth, Josh Valle appeared to be hit by a pitch from Pender but it was ruled a ball. After head coach Jeff Waggoner left the dugout to question the call, a meeting of the minds took place as the umpiring crew came to the conclusion that Valle was in fact plunked and was awarded first base. Kurt Lipton was next to the plate and went shopping at the gap in left-centerfield for a run scoring double.

UAB exploded for six runs in the bottom of the sixth, as the Blazers used a pair of two-run homers and a two-run double to hold a 10-2 lead entering the seventh.

Pellant sliced a triple to left center and scored the third run of the afternoon for the Herd when Kris Hecktor grounded out in the eighth.

Two more runs crossed home for the Blazers in the bottom of the eighth and MU tacked on a run in the ninth as the series is all squared up entering game three on Sunday at 1 p.m. CST.

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Players Mentioned

Isaac Ballou

Kris Hecktor

Kurt Lipton

Mike Mason

Justin Maynard

Kirby Pellant

Josh Valle

Marshall University Athletics