May 29, 2004

HOUSTON - Southern Miss broke out with six runs in the third to take the lead and never looked back as it eliminated No. 7 seed UAB by a final of 9-7 on Saturday (May 29) night in the semifinals of the 2004 Conference USA Baseball Tournament, presented by Sterling Bank, at Cougar Field. Southern Miss improves to 44-16 on the year, while UAB falls to 30-29.

UAB defeated the Golden Eagles earlier in the day to force a second game between the two teams. With the win, USM advances to the championship game set for Sunday afternoon.

The Blazers struck first. After Josh Miljavac reached first on a throwing error by USM second baseman Jarrett Hoffpauir, Eugene Rodriguez bunted a single to third, and Daniel Hill walked to load the bases. Nathan McCorkle then followed with a sacrifice fly to score Miljavac.

Two innings later, the Golden Eagles took a commanding 6-1 lead. With two outs, Marc Maddox homered to right. After Hoffpauir and Brad Willcutt hit consecutive singles to put runners on the corners, Ryan Frith singled to right center, sending Hoffpauir home. Carlos Valesquez walked to once again load the bases, and with a 1-1 count, Jason Lowery followed with a grand slam to left field.

UAB answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning to pull to within four. After Levi Patmon led off with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch, Miljavac walked and both runners advanced on a second wild pitch. One out later, Hill laced a line drive over the right field fence to clear the bags.

UAB added one more in the fourth on an RBI-single by Patmon.

The Golden Eagles out up two more runs in the sixth on Maddox's two-run double.

The Blazers continued to battle and added solo runs in both the seventh and eighth. Seth Rollin belted a solo shot to lead off the eighth.

Adam Smith, who came in to relieve USM starter Nick Valluzzo in the third, earned the victory after hurling 4.2 innings and allowing three runs, two of which were earned, on seven hits, and improves to 3-2 on the season.

Adam Price dropped to 6-6 with the loss for UAB after surrendering all nine Golden Eagle runs on 11 hits, one walk and six strikeouts.

Southern Miss will play the winner of the TCU-Houston game (later tonight) for the C-USA Tournament Championship title on Sunday (May 30) at 1:00 p.m.