The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Softball Begins 10-Game Road Trip At 2004 Cougar Classic
3/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 11, 2004
CHARLESTON, S.C. --- The UAB softball team will begin play in its impending 10-game road trip on Friday at noon (CST), as the Blazers square off against the Bowling Green Falcons at the 2004 Cougar Classic held at Patriots Point. In its second game on Friday, UAB is scheduled to meet the homestanding College of Charleston Cougars at 4 p.m.
"We're really looking forward to playing in this tournament," said UAB head coach Marla Townsend. "Charleston has a really good program and we're looking forward to going over there and continuing our momentum. We have won nine of our last 11 games and we're looking to go from there with some more momentum up to East Carolina."
UAB (10-10) heads into this weekend's five-team event looking to extend its two-game winning streak and to earn the championship title of its third-consecutive tournament.
Two weeks ago, the Blazers finished atop the field at the highly-competitive 2004 Holiday Inn Select-Tulsa Festival as the Blazers concluded the event with a 3-1 record and upended the 34th-ranked Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Last week, UAB registered a perfect 4-0 record at the 2004 Magic City Classic and compiled a pair of wins over cross-town rivals Samford and Birmingham-Southern.
The 2004 Cougar Classic is a three-day competition consisting of two days of round-robin play followed by a four-team, single-elimination tournament to declare an outright champion. The teams will be seeded for the tournament by their play in the round-round robin competition and the fourth and fifth-seeded teams will meet in a play-in game to qualify for the tournament.
"This weekend, I think that we just need to do a better job of adapting to different types of pitching," Townsend said. "We need to hit the ball whether its 65 miles per hour or 55 miles per hour. We have to be able to adjust. I think that we learned a lot this past weekend and hopefully we can take that into this upcoming tournament."
The field for this weekend's Cougar Classic consists of College of Charleston (12-7), Bowling Green (5-5), East Carolina (17-5-1), Savannah State and UAB.
The UAB softball team will open up the 2004 Cougar Classic with a pair of games on Friday as the Blazers take on the Bowling Green Falcons at noon (CST) and College of Charleston Cougars at 4 p.m.
2004 Cougar Classic
Patriots Point - Charleston, S.C.
UAB Tournament Schedule
Friday, March 12
UAB vs. Bowling Green, Noon
UAB at College of Charleston, 4 p.m.
Saturday, March 13
UAB vs. East Carolina, 8 a.m.
UAB vs. Savannah State, Noon
Sunday, March 14
Single-Elimination Tournament, 8 a.m.
