Another Thrilling Ninth Inning rally pushes UAB into American conference semifinals
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - May 23, 2026
Carrying a one-run deficit into the final inning of Friday’s American Conference Tournament elimination game wasn’t necessarily a comfortable feeling for the UAB baseball team. But it certainly was a familiar feeling for a team accustomed to winning games with clutch plays in the final inning.
“The message was just we've been here before,” said UAB’s John Paul Head. “I mean, there was nobody down the dugout, you know.”
Alex Dupuy kickstarted the come-from-behind ninth inning with a leadoff home run to rightfield and Andrew Hunt and Wesley Helms had back-to-back doubles in what was ultimately a four-run rally that lifted the No. 4 seed Blazers to a 9-6 victory over a third-seeded Rice team that beat UAB three times in the regular season.
It not only advanced UAB (32-25) into the loser’s bracket semifinal but it also extended the season for at least one more day.
“I mean, there's so much parity in this league,” said UAB head coach Casey Dunn, whose team opened tournament play on Thursday with a 7-3 loss to Memphis. “You know, from 1 to 10, there's not a big gap. I think you've seen that throughout this tournament in the number of close games. For our guys, nothing's been easy all year. We talk about that a bunch. We've had a lot of adversity, whether it be injuries, close ball games, tough calls, whatever it is, we've had to learn to fight through some trouble. That was the big message after last night is the epitome of the backs against the wall happens when you lose that first game of the tournament.”
UAB shook off Thursday’s disappointment and led for nearly the whole way against the Owls on Friday in a game that was slowed by several replay reviews. A big part holding the lead was because starter Mason Steele was sensational in his five innings on the mound. Steele allowed just one hit – a solo home run in the third inning – and one run while striking out seven and walking one. He struck out the side in his final inning and left with the Blazers holding a 3-1 lead.
“I truly believe when he's healthy, he's the best guy in this league,” Dunn said. “When he's been at 100 percent, he's been really good. You know, the last month has been a struggle for him, just kind of navigating really the first year to have this kind of a workload on the mound. He was a two-way guy in junior college and has never really been just leaned on like we had to lean on him early.”
UAB built the lead to 5-1 over the next two innings but Rice (35-24) refused to quit. The Owls got three runs off UAB reliever Konner Keplinger in the seventh inning with two coming on a pinch-hit home run by Hiram Bocachica Jr. The Owls then took the lead with back-to-back home runs from Paul Smith and Garet Boehm off UAB’s Riley Miller in the eighth inning.
Rice undoubtedly took the momentum into the ninth inning but that lasted until Dupuy drove a 1-2 pitch over the rightfield wall. Brady Waugh followed with a crisp single to rightfield. Alex Cheeseman pinch-ran for Waugh and scored from first on Andrew Hunt’s double that bounced off the top of the wall in left-centerfield. Helms then poked an opposite field double into rightfield to score Hunt. Helms moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Austin Pierzynski and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Baylor Roberts that turned into an error on Rice.
That left it up to Miller, who shook off the eighth inning trouble to shut the Owls down in order with the game on the line.
Now the Blazers move on to Saturday’s game against No. 7 seed Wichita State, which played in the late game on Friday night. The semifinal game is slated to begin about 45 minutes after the 9 a.m. CT winner’s bracket semifinal between No. 1 seed UTSA and No. 2 seed East Carolina.