The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Travel to Wiregrass Classic
2/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 23, 2006
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Blazers will take to the road this weekend, travelling to Dothan, Ala., to play in the Wiregrass Classic. UAB will join Michigan, South Alabama and Troy in the weekend tournament being played at Westgate Park.
Head coach Larry Giangrosso's squad will open up play against the Michigan Wolverines Friday at 2 p.m. This will be the first ever meeting between the Blazers and the Big Blue of Michigan, a team who earned a rare at-large bid to the NCAA tournament by a northern school in 2005. This is the first contest of the season for the Wolverines.
Saturday's game will have UAB facing a familiar foe in the South Alabama Jaguars. These two programs have played 82 games against each other in their history, with USA holding a 52-30 advantage. The Jaguars come into the contest with a 5-4 record, and are lead by the powerful bat of David Freese, who is hitting .488 with 17 RBIs on the young season.
Another state school beckons on Sunday, as the Troy Trojans will matchup up with UAB in the final game of the weekend. This rivalry extends back to 1979, when these two teams met up on the baseball diamond for the first time. Since then, they have tangled 27 times with the men of Troy holding a ever so slight 14-13 advantage over the Blazers. Troy comes into the classic on a four game losing streak, with their season record standing at 3-4.
UAB returns to action after a winning start to the season, as Giangrosso's squad took two of three against Ball State this past weekend. The Blazers took game one of the series 10-4, with UAB banging out 11 hits and Heath Tapscott throwing six solid innings to claim his first victory of the season. Zac Ward led the charge, going 3-for-5 with four RBIs in the opener.
Game two was an extra-inning thriller, as the Blazers fell 11-10 against the Cardinals in 13 innings. UAB shined at the plate, pounding out 16 hits, including three doubles, but timely defensive miscues allowed Ball State to escape with the win. Ryan Metcalf, John Wayne Donahue and Levi Patmon all had three hits for UAB in a losing effort.
UAB returned to form in the second half of the doubleheader, riding the arm of Jim Crew to win a 3-0 pitcher's duel. Crew was spectacular, hurling 6.1 no-hit innings for the Blazers while striking out three. Ben Styes continued the dominance, and Brandon Flaherty pitched a scoreless ninth to record his first save of the season. Danny Sawyer provided the offense for UAB, going 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs in the win.
For complete cov erage of this weekend and all UAB baseball action,go to www.uabsports.com.
