Birmingham, Ala. – UAB plated six unanswered runs, including four in the bottom of the sixth inning. To down Furman, 9-5, in the finale of the UAB Tournament on Sunday afternoon at Mary Bowers Field in Birmingham, Ala.
A bunt single, walk and an error loaded the bases for the Blazers with one out before Jenna Olszewski reached on an infield single to put UAB in front 6-5. A bases loaded walk upped the margin to 7-5 and Ashton Clem followed with a two-run double to increase the advantage to 9-5.
Amy Woodham picked up the victory for the Blazers after tossing two and one-third innings of scoreless relief. The right-hander fanned two batters and issued two walks to improve to 4-3 on the season.
UAB (15-11) got on the board first with three runs in the bottom of the third inning, highlighted by Olszewski's two-run double. Furman got on the board in the top of the fourth on
Emily Bartlett's first career homer and trimmed the Blazer lead to 3-2 with back-to-back doubles from
Morgan Smith and
Amanda Fleming. After
Savannah Hughes was hit by a pitch,
Natalie Morgan crushed a three-run homer to give the Paladins a 5-3 lead.
The Blazers' Sierra Frazier knotted the game at 5-5 with a two-run double in the bottom of the fourth. In the top of the fifth, a
Tess Griswold walk, Bartlett double and Smith walk loaded the bases for the Paladins with nobody out, but the pinch runner at third base left early on a fly out to right field and Fleming struck out to end the threat.
Smith (3-10), who came on in relief of starter
Bailey Tanner, took the loss for Furman. The right-hander gave up four runs on four hits in two innings of work. She walked two without recording a strikeout.
Bartlett went 2-for-3 with a double and homer for the Paladins, while Smith finished 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles. Morgan was 1-for-4 with three RBIs.
Frazier and Olszewski each collected two hits and drove in three runs for UAB.
Furman (7-17) opens its home schedule on Tuesday at 1 p.m. when it hosts the Pitt Panthers at Pepsi Stadium. Admission to all game at Pepsi Stadium is free. The home opener will be streamed on the SoCon Digital Network with live statistics provided thru StatBroadcast.
