The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Softball Begins 2004 Season At Hawaii Paradise Classic
2/4/2004 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 4, 2004
HONOLULU --- The UAB softball team is set to begin its 2004 season on Thursday, Feb. 5, as the Blazers square off against the homestanding HawaiI Rainbow Wahine at 6 p.m. (HST) here in the annual Paradise Classic held at the University of Hawaii.
"We are ready to get on the field and face some of the toughest competition that we can possibly face," said UAB head coach Marla Townsend. "We play some very good teams here this weekend and we have to stay focused on the task at hand because we are definitely surrounded by beauty."
The 2004 Paradise Classic is a four-day competition held at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium and features round-robin play followed by a one-day, single-elimination tournament.
UAB opens the six-team event on Thursday at 6 p.m. (HST) against Hawaii and then meets up with both 25th-ranked Tennessee and Saint Mary's on Friday. The Blazers are scheduled to face Tennessee at noon (HST) and the Saint Mary's Gaels at 4 p.m. (HST).
On Saturday, UAB concludes its round-robin play against BYU at 9 a.m. (HST) and the 23rd-ranked Oregon State Beavers at 1 p.m. (HST). Following the first three days of the Paradise Classic, the teams will be seeded according to their results and will compete in a single-elimination tournament to determine the championship. The tournament is scheduled to begin on Sunday, Feb. 8, at 9 a.m. (HDT).
"We made the decision to start this season off against some very good teams and that's what we did," Townsend said. "We're ready to start the season and we're excited to be out on the field again. This group of players has really become close and they have acted as if they have been playing together for several years."
Of the six teams playing in this week's 2004 Paradise Classic, only Saint Mary's and No. 23 Oregon State have competed in regular-season play.
Oregon State, which opened its 2004 season on the road at the UC-Santa Barbara tournament last week, owns an early 4-1 overall record after the Beavers picked up wins against Santa Clara, 6-0, Illinois-Chicago, 3-0, UC-Santa Barbara, 4-3, and Long Beach State, 1-0.
Saint Mary's kicked off its 2004 campaign on Sunday, Feb. 1, against cross-town rival Cal and dropped both games of the season-opening doubleheader. In the first game of the series, Cal registered a resounding 7-1 victory and then followed that up with a decisive 9-2 win in the nightcap.
The UAB softball team will kick off its 2004 season on Thursday, Feb. 5, as the Blazers take on the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine at 6 p.m. (HST) here in Honolulu, Hawaii.
2004 Paradise Classic
UAB Schedule/Game Times
Thursday, Feb. 5
UAB at Hawaii - 6 p.m. (HST)
Friday, Feb. 6
UAB vs. #25 Tennessee - Noon (HST)
UAB vs. Saint Mary's - 4 p.m. (HST)
Saturday, Feb. 7
UAB vs. BYU - 9 a.m. (HST)
UAB vs. #22 Oregon State - 1 p.m. (HST)
Sunday, Feb. 8
Single-Elimination tournament - 9 a.m. (HST)
