University of Houston
UAB
Baseball Drops Heartbreaker to UAB at C-USA Championship
5/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 23, 2008
Complete Houston-UAB Game Book (May 23, 2008) in PDF Format 
NEW ORLEANS - Ryan Keedy smashed a home run to left center to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning and lift No. 8 seed UAB to a 5-4 win Friday against the University of Houston baseball team during a winner's bracket game at the 2008 Entergy Conference USA Baseball Championship, hosted by Tulane at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.
The loss spoiled a valiant comeback by the Cougars who trailed 4-0 after seven innings but knotted the game with four runs in the eighth, using four hits and a pair of walks. Pinch-hitter Chris Wallace started the rally with a one-out walk and moved to second following Caleb Ramsey's single through the right side. After Blake Kelso's single through the right side loaded the bases, Jake Stewart drew a bases loaded walk to force home the first Cougar run.
Bryan Pounds followed with a single to left field that scored Ramsey and kept the bases loaded. Jimmy Cesario then lined a two-run single into left field to plate Kelso and Stewart and knot the score at 4-4.
However, that would be all the runs the Cougars would score the rest of the day.
Freshman DH Caleb Ramsey went 2-for-4 with a run, while senior third baseman Bryan Pounds batted 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead a Cougar offense, which was outhit 12-8.
Freshman closer Chase Dempsay collected the loss and fell to 5-3 after giving up a run off a hit in one inning of relief.
UAB reliever Billy Lichtner picked up the win and improved to 1-1 after holding the Cougars to two hits with a strikeout in the final 1.2 shutout innings.
Keedy went 2-for-4 while Phil Bell went 4-for-4 with two RBIs to lead all hitters. Jonathan Merritt also batted 2-for-4 with two runs and a triple in the winning effort.
With the loss, the Cougars will face No. 5 seed East Carolina at 7:30 p.m., Friday in an elimination game. If the Cougars win, they will meet UAB at 12:30 p.m., Saturday and will need to beat the Blazers twice to advance to the Championship game.
If the Cougars fall to the Pirates, they must wait until the NCAA Selection Show to learn if they will receive an at-large bid to an NCAA Regional. The Selection Show is slated for 11:30 a.m., Monday on ESPN.
UAB improved to 26-32 overall.
Fans can hear all Cougar Baseball games live at UHCougars.com by clicking the appropriate links. Jeremy Branham will call the play-by-play action while former letterwinner Pat Cauley provides color analysis.
Fans always can follow live stats by clicking on the Gametracker link.
The Blazers loaded the bases in the first inning with no outs and plated the game's first run when Luke Stewart grounded out to first base, scoring Merritt. The rally continued when Bell's RBI-single through the right side scored Nick Crawford for a 2-0 UAB lead.
UAB pushed its lead to 3-0 in the second when Nick Crawford's infield single plated Merritt, who led off with a triple off the center-field wall.
The score remained that way until the fifth inning when Phil Bell's bunt single scored Brint Hardy, who reached on a two-out infield single, stole second and moved to third following an errant throw on the steal attempt.
