April 3, 2008

Tuscaloosa, AL (UWIRE) -- HOOVER - Alabama head coach Jim Wells had gotten eight quality outings from his starting pitchers over the last two weeks, but that streak didn't continue on Wednesday.

And the bullpen didn't fare much better.

UAB roughed up three different Alabama pitchers and got a complete game from Mitch Kloskowski to knock off the Crimson Tide 8-5 at Regions Park.

"For us to go with these guys we're bringing in now, Kebodeaux has to go deep in the game," Alabama head coach Jim Wells said. "The hope was that even if [we needed relief], Jimmy Nelson would pitch better, but he continues to struggle."

Alabama has now lost three straight games at Regions Park.

Casey Kebodeaux (2-3) picked up the loss after working four innings, giving up four hits and four runs. Nathan Kilcrease entered the game and was hit hard, even though he only surrendered one run.

Jimmy Nelson came out of the bullpen in the sixth, and it got worse. He struggled with control and then UAB stroked three RBI singles to stretch their lead out to 8-2.

Connor Hoehn was the only effective pitcher of the night, as he worked 1.2 innings of scoreless ball.

Alabama scored a run in each of the first two frames but struggled the rest of the way.

"Early in the game, there was no reason not to have an offense," Wells said. "That gets lost when you give up eight runs, but we're not swinging it right now."

The offense did have to battle without its leading hitter, shortstop Josh Rutledge. The freshman woke up with soreness in his knee. Wells said the MRI came back negative, but there was swelling in the knee. His status for the weekend series against LSU is still up in the air.

UAB used a couple of bunts and two Alabama errors to plate two runners in the second inning and gain a 3-2 edge. Austin Taylor led off the inning with a single. Allen Aubin attempted to sacrifice him over, but Kebodeaux airmailed the throw over Matt Bentley's head.

Taylor came all the way around to score on the error. Jonathan Merritt showed bunt on the next pitch, but pulled the bat back and hit a chopper to Brandon May, who bobbled it and allowed him to reach.

Phil Bell drove in the second UAB run on a fielder's choice.

Cody McMurry's leadoff double in the fifth inning chased Kebodeaux from the game, and Kilcrease came out of the pen for the second straight night.

Kilcrease got a groundout to the first batter, but Brint Hardy executed a squeeze bunt to push the run across.

Alabama mounted a rally in the eighth inning off Kloskowski to cut the deficit, but it was too little, too late. The Tide loaded the bases with no outs with singles from Jake Smith and Ross Wilson and a walk from Alex Kubal.

Alex Avila provided the lone clutch hit of the night with a two-run double into the right field corner to make it 8-4. After a Brandon May strikeout, Matt Bentley drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right. Kent Matthes popped up to end the threat.

Alabama will hit the road for a three-game set with the LSU Tigers, starting on Friday. Pag

(C) 2008 The Crimson White via UWIRE