DI/SWAC/Baseball
aamu sports info
BIRMINGHAM, AL — Alabama A&M Head Coach Mitch Hill got another strong pitching performance and some timely hitting Tuesday in a 6-3 win over the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
The win was the first in the program’s history over the Blazers and lifted the Bulldogs to 4-5 this season. It was the first loss of the season for UAB, 6-1, of Conference USA.
Starting pitcher Caleb Bowen pitched four strong innings, giving up just one hit. Ben Fritz came on in the fifth and was relieved in the sixth by Caleb Roberts, who finished up. On Sunday, Roberts pitched a complete game win over Marshall.
“We had another good outing from our pitchers,” Hill said. “Caleb (Bowen) started out rocky but really settled down; Ben had a shutdown inning and then gave up a couple of walks and we went with Caleb the rest of the way.
“Overall, it was a pretty good game.”
The Blazers scored first but the Bulldogs took the lead in the second when Brandyn Crutcher drove in Jordan Friend and Patrick Dodson’s sacrifice fly scored Dustin Dhanani.
The Bulldogs picked up another run in the fourth on Crutcher’s RBI single to score Dhanani.
“We executed early on mistakes they made,: Hill said.
A&M tacked on another run in the sixth to take a 4-1 lead when Austin Hulsey drove in Crutcher. But the Blazers scored twice in the bottom of the inning to cut the A&M lead to 4-3.
Ty Russell, though, led off the seventh with a double and scored when Julio Nunez singled for a 5-3 lead. The Bulldogs made it 6-3 when Hulsey singled and Andrew Utterback ripped a triple to the right-centerfield gap.
Crutcher was 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs, Hulsey and Nunez went 2 for 4 and Dhanani scored a pair of runs in his four innings, Bowen struck out four and allowed one run while giving up two hits and four walks. Fritz had one strikeout, one hit and two runs in one inning of work while Roberts struck out two and gave up two hits and one walk in his four-inning appearance.
“I thought Alabama A&M played really well,” said UAB Head Coach Brian Shoop. “They squared balls up well.
“We had our hands full today for sure.”
The Bulldogs travel to Auburn on Thursday and then host Mississippi Valley on Saturday and Sunday in the SWAC opener.
“We got another tough one on the road at Auburn,” Hill said. “But this was a good step going into our conference weekend.
“Our guys are excited.”