Feb. 28, 2009
Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.- The UIC baseball team fell in a pair of games to 23rd-ranked Alabama at an overcast Sewell-Thomas Stadium on Saturday.
An early UIC lead was overcome by Alabama's three-run sixth inning during a 4-2 loss in the opener, while a five-run first set the tone for the Tide to score in every inning but one as the Flames suffered a 20-4 defeat in the nightcap.
The Flames move to 0-6 on the year, while the Crimson Tide improves to 5-2.
Game One: Alabama 4, UIC 2
The Flames took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning when Alabama's Kent Matthes hit a go-ahead three-run homer as the Crimson Tide rallied for a 4-2 victory in the day's first game.
Andy Leonard went 3-for-4 with a solo homer for the Flames.
Chris Kovacevich allowed just three hits and no runs after five innings until the fateful sixth, when the Crimson Tide put a pair on for Matthes, who hit a Kovacevich offering over the left field fence to put the hosts up one run.
Alex Kubal added an insurance run with a solo blast in the seventh.
UIC had taken the lead in the third on Leonard's leadoff shot and tacked on a second score in the top of the sixth when Jake Carr's sacrifice fly plated Nathan Orf.
The Flames put two on with two out in the seventh after Brandon Harwell and Leonard hit back-to-back singles, but Orf was called out on strikes to end that threat.
UIC had both Harwell and Leonard in scoring position with two away in the top of the ninth, but home plate umpire Owen Butts called strike three on Ty Rubio to end the game.
Game Two: Alabama 20, UIC 4
Alabama scored five times off of UIC starter Mike Kool in the first, and the evening did not get much better for Flames pitchers as the Crimson Tide scored in every frame but the seventh to defeat UIC, 20-4, in Saturday's second game.
Carr homered drove in three runs for the Flames, while Steve McGuiggan hit a solo homer of his own.
Kool was charged with six runs and seven hits in an inning of work before departing with two on and no one out in the second.
The first five Alabama hitters of the game reached, with Matthes' two-run double and Ross Wilson's two-run homer accounting for the majority of the scoring in that frame.
The final score was inflated with late runs, as the Crimson Tide tallied a combined eight runs in the fifth and sixth innings and put three more runs on the board in the bottom of the eighth.
Every UIC pitcher who took the mound in the nightcap allowed at least two runs.
UIC wraps up its series against Alabama on Sunday at 12:35 p.m. Central.
