May 13, 2000

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - A pair of singles and a lot of patience with two outs in the ninth inning earned Saint Louis University a 5-4 win over UAB this afternoon in Conference USA baseball action at The Billiken Sports Center. Junior Brandon Shockley (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) drove in the winning run with a bases loaded walk to give the Billikens (19-33, 6-20 C-USA) the victory.

Saint Louis had a comfortable 4-1 lead through seven innings as starter Ben Hutton (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) gave up hits to the Blazers, but continually pitched out of trouble. UAB found its mark in the eighth, however, when Christian Reimers hit a one-out triple. Back-to-back home runs by Dan DeMent and Brent Laircy tied the game at 4-4. Billiken reliever Brad Wehrfritz (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) took over and shut down the next two batters. The Billikens drew two walks in the bottom of the frame, but could not capitalize.

The Blazers were back at it in the top of the ninth when back-to-back singles put two runners on with no outs. A sacrifice bunt later, both runners were in scoring position. Wehrfritz got Mitch Jones to pop up, but walked Reimers to load the bases with two outs. DeMent could not repeat his heroics, flying out to centerfield.

The Billikens started the ninth with a single from Brian Haddock (St. Louis, Mo./SLUH). After Nick Steiner (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) flied out, Adam Shea (Chesterfield, Mo./DeSmet) singled to short. Another fly ball gave the Bills two outs, but still two men on base. Joe Boyer (St. Louis, Mo./Hillsboro) worked the count full before drawing a walk to load the bases. Shockley came up with the game on the line and, patiently, earned an RBI on four-straight balls to plate Haddock for the win.

Steiner hit his 10th home run of the season with two outs in the first inning to get start the scoring early. Shortstop Paul Miles (St. Louis, Mo./Jefferson College) drove in a run with a single in the second, while Jim Bredenkoetter (St. Louis, Mo./DeSmet) plated a pair of runs on a single in the third. Wehrfritz got the win for Saint Louis, while Michael Stallings took the loss for UAB. Hutton went 7-1/3 innings, yielding four runs and striking out five.

These two teams square off again Sun., May 14, 1 p.m., in the final game of the season for Saint Louis in which the team will recognize its four seniors. All the action can be heard live on WINU 880 AM.