May 22, 2015
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HATTIESBURG, Mississippi - When UAB left fielder Jeff Schalk took the field in the top of the ninth inning Friday afternoon at Taylor Park, he said that he had a vision of sorts.
When he came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning, Schalk made his vision a reality.
Schalk lined a two-run, walk-off home run over the wall in right-center field to give the Blazers a 2-1 winners' bracket victory in the 2015 Conference USA Baseball Championship.
"I saw this picture over and over in my head, exactly what I imagined would happen," said Schalk, who lost his jersey in the mob scene at home plate, "and it's pretty cool when it does happen like that."
The stunning turnabout put the sixth-seeded Blazers (32-24) into Saturday's bracket championship undefeated. UAB would have to win once to reach Sunday's noon title game.
The second-seeded Owls (39-16), who are ranked as high as 19th in the national polls, will face Southern Miss at 6:30 p.m. today in an elimination game.
"Two pitches changed the game," FAU coach John McCormack said. "One for us, and one for them."
FAU had broken a scoreless tie in the eighth inning on a solo home run by shortstop C.J. Chatham, and with the way FAU senior right-hander Drew Jackson (6-3) was wheeling and dealing, it appeared the single run could well be enough.
Through eight innings, Jackson had allowed only three hits while striking out a career-high 11 batters. After issuing a walk with two outs in the fourth inning, he had retired 13 consecutive Blazers.
He struck out center fielder Chase Davis to start the ninth, tying the most strikeouts in a game by any C-USA pitcher this season and moving within one of the conference single-game postseason record of 13 set by Tulane's Jason Navarro in 1997 against Cincinnati.
But Griffin Gum slashed a single through the right side on a 3-1 count, and Schalk followed by mashing a 2-1 fastball just to the right of the big, black wall in center field.
"He been throwing me fastballs all game today," Schalk said. "I think I saw two sliders, or whatever he was throwing, so I was just sitting fastball, and I was just hoping I got one over the plate that I could get a good swing on.
"I knew I hit it well. I wasn't sure it was high enough. I knew it was going to get out there and give Griff a chance to score from first, but I wasn't sure it was going out."
Jackson, a second-team All-C-USA selection, stood stock-still on the side of the mound, shocked, as Schalk circled the bases, before slowly squatting for a long, few moments on the grass.
"Wow," UAB coach Brian Shoop said. "What can you say? In a game that was almost totally dominated by pitching, where nobody even threatened, we throw one bad pitch, and they homer, and they throw one bad pitch, and we homer, but we just happen to have a guy on base."
UAB starter Alex Luna went stride-for-stride with Jackson, shutting out the Owls for seven innings on three hits, while walking two and striking out seven.
He was replaced by Dylan Munger (2-0), who surrendered Chatman's third homer of the season over the left-field fence.
But Schalk flipped the switch with a long flick of his bat.
"We just kept grinding and kept grinding and kept grinding, stayed positive and that something good