The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Baseball Notes For The Auburn Game
3/4/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 4, 2002
THIS
WEEK'S SCHEDULE:
Tue. 3/5????????? UAB
vs. AUBURN (6 pm)
Sat. 3/9?????????? UAB
vs. CONNECTICUT (DH * 1 pm)
Sun.
3/10??????? UAB
vs. CONNECTICUT (1 pm)
?
TUESDAY'S
STARTER: UAB will
send? junior LHP Jon Burgett
(0-1, 9.95 ERA)? to the mound in Tuesday's game
vs. Auburn.
AUBURN
STARTER: The Tigers
(10-4 overall) will send freshman LHP Arnold Hughey (0-0, 6.23 ERA) to the mound vs. UAB Tuesday.?
THE
UAB-AUBURN SERIES: ?Hasn't been much fun for the
Blazers in recent years. The perennial SEC and national power Tigers hold a
36-9 edge, dating back to the 1979 season, UAB's first year of? official intercollegiate baseball
competition. Auburn has won the last nine overall and the last eight at Young
Memorial Field, dating back to the 1994 season.
AN EVEN
1000: Counting his
high school, junior college and four-year collegiate head coaching experience,
UAB Head Coach Larry Giangrosso will be working his 1000th game as a head coach when the
Blazers face Auburn Tuesday.
"COACH
GINO":? Larry Giangrosso (UAB '75) is in his third season as head
coach of the UAB Blazers.? The
Birmingham native?? is 58-68
(.460) overall at UAB.? Giangrosso
was named head coach at UAB on June 16, 1999.? Prior to that, he spent nine seasons as head coach at Central
Alabama Community College (1991-99), where he posted a 320-183-1 (.636) record and led his
teams to a state championship (1998) and three conference titles. Giangrosso
also had a very successful stint as head coach at Birmingham's W.A.
Berry High School (1979-90), where he had a 254-115 (.688) record and led the Bucs to the Alabama
4A state title (1981), as well as five regional and four Jefferson County
championships.
YOUNG
MEMORIAL? FIELD:? Jerry D. Young Memorial Field is in its 19th
season as the Blazers' home field (the program called historic Rickwood
Field home from 1979-83). The Blazers have a 328-197-1 (.625) all-time record at Young Memorial
Field (1984-? ) and are 5-2 at home in 2002.
MORE
LIKE IT: After
struggling through a four-game losing streak in the second week of the season,
the Blazers bounced back with a three-game sweep of Oakland (Mich.)
University last
weekend at Young Memorial Field. Despite trailing late in each of the games,
UAB rallied each time, winning in dramatic fashion on Mitch Jones' pinch-hit home run in the bottom of
the ninth inning in game one of Friday's double-header, and posting big
innings late in game two and three to win going away.?
REALLY MORE LIKE IT:? Junior outfielder Mitch Jones entered the weekend series vs.
Oakland mired in a terrible slump, hitting .037 through eight games.? Accordingly, he found himself out of
the starting lineup for the first time in 2002 when the Blazers took on Oakland
in game one of Friday's double-header. Jones did, however, manage to
redeem himself in grand fashion.?
With? the score tied 3-3 in
the bottom of the ninth inning, Coach Larry Giangrosso sent him to the plate to pinch hit
for catcher Brad Bamberg, who is limited to batting left-handed because of a shoulder injury and
surgery during the offseason.? With
one out in the ninth, Jones stepped in to face Oakland lefthander Brent Brown.? After taking a ball, Jones drove
Brown's next pitch over the left center field wall for a solo home run,
giving UAB a dramatic 4-3 win.?
That seemed to make all the difference for the former freshman
All-American, back in the starting lineup for game two of the double-header, he
hit a two-run homer in his first at-bat, and wound up with four RBI in the
game.? In Saturday's game vs.
the Golden Grizzlies, Jones went 3-5 with two RBI in UAB's 15-9 victory.? For the weekend, Jones hit .545 (6-11)
wiht two home runs, seven RBI and five runs scored. Amazingly, he raised his
season batting average over 150 points -- he's now hitting .184 for the
season (7-38).
FALLS
STEPS UP: True
freshman Tony Falls pitched with un-freshmanlike poise in two outings in the Oakland series,
picking up two wins in relief.? He
did not allow an earned run in two complete innings, and had two walks and four
strikeouts. He got the win in Friday's 4-3 thriller (he worked the top of
the ninth), and picked up another victory in the Saturday single game.
HOT BATS: First baseman Matt Womble also had a hot hand in the Oakland
series, batting .500 (5-10) with a team-high 8 RBI...Womble leads the Blazers
in RBIs with 12 through 11 games ... true freshman outfielder Chad House also hit .500 in three games vs.
Oakland (7-14), with three RBI and five runs scored. Third baseman Matt
Gaulden is hitting
.382 for the year (13-34) with one home run and seven RBI ... Gaulden is one of
three Blazers to have started all 11 games to date (the others are shortstop Mark
Garner and right
fielder Kyle Leon).
BULLPEN
SUCCESS:? Reliever Cody Cillo (RHP) picked up a save vs. the Golden
Grizzlies in game two of the double-header -- he leads the Blazers with two
saves this season....LHP Michael Stallings, a fifth-year senior who missed all of 2001 after
undergoing rotator cuff surgery, picked up his first win since the 2000 season
in game two of Friday's double-header vs. Oakland, working 2.2 innings in
relief, allowing no runs on two hits, with one walk and four strikeouts.
STARTING
AT CATCHER (?):
Most likely senior Brad Bamberg, backed up by junior college transfer Justin Miller. Bamberg has started three of the
team's last four games since returning starter Al Hecklinski experienced
problems with his right shoulder -- the same shoulder that he had surgery on in
the offseason.? Hecklinski has
started four games at catcher (and the first two at designated hitter) while
Bamberg has started three and Miller four, if Hecklinski's injury situation
does not improve it's likely that the now virtually exclusively
left-handed hitting Bamberg, with his .400 batting average (4-10) will get the
nod. Ironically, Bamberg also underwent surgery on his shoulder during the
offseason (that's the reason he now?
bats lefthanded).
HOME
STAND: ?UAB is in the midst of a 10-game home
stand, its longest of the 2002 season.
BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN
GAME RE-SCHEDULED: ?Last? week's home game vs. Birmingham-Southern (which would have been the
beginning of an11-game home stand), which was scheduled for Feb. 26, was postponed
because of frigid weather.? The
Blazers and Panthers will now face each other on successive nights in May
- Tuesday,
May 7 on the
hilltop at Scrushy-Striplin Field (6 pm) and Wednesday, May 8 at Young Memorial Field (7 pm).
UAB vs.
THE SEC: The Blazers
are 1-0 vs. SEC teams in? 2002,
with a? 3-1 win over Kentucky at Young Memorial Field on Feb. 17.
UAB finished 4-4 against? SEC teams
in 2001. Along with its two wins over Alabama, the Blazers also went 1-1 vs. Mississippi
State and Vanderbilt and 0-2 vs. Auburn.
CHANGE
IN THE BOX(es):? Coach Giangrosso made a move on the
field prior to the 2002 season that didn't show up in the scorebook, the
Blazer head coach assigned himself to?
the third base coaching box, the first time he has done so since
he's been at UAB (starting with the 2000 season).? Assistant coach Lee Hall was the team's third base
coach for the last two seasons, while "Gino" coached from the
dugout.? The two have now
switched.? Assistant coach Frank
Walton moved back
into the first base coaching box after working from the dugout last season
(Walton has been the team's first base coach for many seasons, under Pete
Rancont and Larry
Giangrosso).
COMING
UP:? After this weekend's series
with Connecticut,
the Blazers face Alabama State next Tuesday (Mar. 12/6 pm) before opening Conference USA play
vs. Houston, Mar.
15-17 at Young
Memorial Field.
AND
THEN: The Blazers
finally get back out on the road, playing at Auburn (Mar. 19/6 pm) and a three-game C-USA series at Charlotte, Mar.22-24.
