LIVINGSTON,
Ala. – The 12th-ranked
University of West Alabama baseball team
split a pair of home contests on
Saturday at Tartt Field. UWA (6-2)
handed No. 1 Tampa its second loss of
the season, 10-3, in the Tigers home
opener, but fell 5-1 in the night cap to
Gulf South Conference West Division foe
Southern Arkansas.
Trailing 2-1 after four innings in the
home lid lifter, UWA used a six-run
fifth inning to tumble the Spartans. The
first Tiger run of the inning came on a
bases loaded, sacrifice bunt by Bryan
Mason that scored Sam McCormack, tying
the game at 2-2. Douglas Frazier
followed one batter later with a double
down the left field line to score Jeremy
Finney and Dallas Rogers. Rob Dahlberg
followed with a two-run, homerun to left
center that scored Frazier and put the
Tigers up 5-1. Nick Wheeler capped the
inning with a solo homer to left center,
his second of the game.
The
Spartans (5-2) added another run in the
seventh, but two Tiger runs in the home
half of the seventh and one more in the
eighth capped the contest for the Red
and White.
Mike
Schmitt (3-0) got the victory against
UT, throwing 6 1/3 innings with three
runs surrendered on seven hits. Dom Sapp
pitched the final 2 2/3 innings,
recording three strikeouts.
In the
final affair of the night, the UWA bats
were kept off guard, tallying only one
run on three hits against SAU’s Hayden
Simpson, who got the complete game win.
Simpson improved to 2-0 on the season.
Trailing 3-0 after five innings, the
Tigers plated their only run of the
contest on a Finney ground out to the
shortstop that scored Mason, who led the
inning off with a triple down the right
field line.
The
Muleriders posted a run in their first
at-bat of the night, as James Schroeder
singled to center field to score Cannon
Lester. SAU added two more runs in the
fourth inning to take a 3-0 lead. The
Muleriders added additional runs in the
eighth and ninth to close out the game.
Matt
Hill (2-1) suffered his first loss of
the season, throwing five innings. The
D’Iberville, Miss.-native allowed three
runs on six hits with six strikeouts.
John Ashley, Zane Adams and JB Black all
saw innings on the mound in the loss.
West
Alabama returns to action on Sunday,
Feb. 15 as UWA hosts #1 Tampa at 11:00
a.m. The Tigers will close out the night
against #10 Southern Arkansas at
approximately 5:00 p.m. Live stats will
be available for all contests at
athletics.uwa.edu.
