FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES
Alabama 12 Mississippi Valley State 4
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Junior outfielder Tyler Odle went 3-for-3 with a home run, two RBI and scored five runs in leading Alabama to a 12-4 win over Mississippi Valley State Tuesday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
Odle is the first Alabama player to score five runs in a game since Casey Lambert scored five runs in the Crimson Tide’s 26-7 win at Kentucky on March 18, 2001. Odle was hit by a pitch and scored in the first inning and slammed his first home run of the season in the third inning to give the Tide a 2-0 lead. He walked and scored in the fourth, singled and scored in the sixth and doubled and scored in the seventh inning. The junior missed the Alabama single game of six runs scored set by Craig Shipley in a 35-11 win over Georgia Southern on March 28, 1984.
“Odle is one four players on the team that can really hit the ball hard the other way,” Alabama coach Jim Wells said. “He has played well and a good game tonight. I’ve made the decision that we are going to put him the lineup and let him swing the bat. He has done a good job this year.”
Alabama Recap
Mississippi Valley State Recap
Kentucky 7 Louisville 6
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Sophomore Keenan Wiley’s first career home run in the bottom of the 12th inning lifted the ninth-ranked Kentucky baseball team to a dramatic 7-6 walk-off win over in-state rival Louisville – its seventh win in the past nine meetings between the two schools – in front of a lively 4,009 fans at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
Wiley, an outfielder from Richmond, Ky., needed 215 career at bats to loft the first dinger of his collegiate career. A speedy, lead-off hitter, Wiley ripped Gavin Logsdon’s second pitch of the leadoff at-bat in the 12th, an inside fastball that soared over the 30-foot wall towering in right field. Wiley went 4-for-6 at the plate, with three runs scored and two RBI, in addition to throwing out, from left field, the game-tying run at the plate.
In two career games vs. Louisville, Wiley is batting .556 (5-for-9) with four runs scored, a double, a homer and two RBI.
UK Recap
Louisville Recap
James Madison 4 Liberty 0
LYNCHBURG, Va., April 8, 2008 – Five James Madison University pitchers combined to record the shutout in a 4-0 victory over Liberty University in a non-conference baseball game on Tuesday evening at Worthington Stadium.
JMU improved to 22-8 overall in 2008 and recorded its first shutout of the season and first since April 29 last season. The Dukes improved the nation’s second-best road record to 11-2. Liberty dropped to 14-16.
After having a pair of games rained out over the weekend, the Dukes sent five different pitchers to the hill against the Flames to combine on the shutout. They combined to tie the season low for hits allowed at four. Redshirt junior Kurt Houck (Gilbertsville, Pa./Boyertown) threw the first three frames with two strikeouts to pick up the win and improve to 3-1.
Central Florida 6 South Florida 3
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) – Junior Robert Lara’s first-inning grand slam paved the way for freshman Cody Allen to win his first collegiate start as the UCF baseball team defeated USF, 6-3, Tuesday at Jay Bergman Field. Allen, a graduate of Orlando’s Boone High School, went 8.0 innings with six strikeouts, scattering six hits and not walking a batter.
“In the first couple of innings I went out there with a reliever mentality,” said Allen, who improved to 2-0 on the year. “After (the USF homer in the second) I kind of settled down a little bit and started working the strike zone and putting the ball where I needed to.”
Lara’s homer was his second grand slam of the season and helped the Knights (23-11) end a seven-game losing streak. Meanwhile, junior Eric Kallstrom stretched his hitting streak to nine games, and senior Ryan Richardson collected three singles in the victory vs. the Bulls (15-16).
