The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB To Play Southern Miss In C-USA First Round
5/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The sixth-seeded UAB Blazers have earned their highest seed in the Conference USA Tournament since 1998 and will take on number three Southern Miss at 3:00 p.m. CT at Clark-LeClair Stadium in Greenville, N.C. on Wednesday. The Blazers and the Golden Eagles are two of the hottest teams in the field with UAB winning seven of its last nine league games and Southern Miss winning its last 10 regular season games.
This is the fourth straight Conference USA Tournament appearance for the Blazers who finished the regular season with a record of 25-31 (12-12 C-USA).
The two teams are matched-up in the bottom half of the draw along with second-seeded East Carolina and seventh-seeded Tulane. UAB won its regular season series against both ECU and Tulane, 2-1, but lost its three-game set at Southern Miss, 2-1.
Rice ran away with the regular season crown with its 22-2 record and will play number eight UCF in its first round game. Also on the top half of the draw is fourth-seeded Houston and number five Memphis.
UAB won four Conference USA series this season for the first season since 2005 and will now look to win a C-USA Tournament game for the first time since 2004.
The Blazers and the Golden Eagles have met three times in the Conference USA Tournament with Southern Miss winning two of the three contests. UAB beat Southern Miss, 10-6, in 2000.
A vast improvement from its starting pitching aided UAB's late-season run, with sophomore right-hander Mitch Kloskowski (5-5, 3.92 ERA) and senior right-hander Grant Addison (3-1, 2.47 ERA) standing out. The two right-handers each recorded a complete game victory in the final two weeks of the season with Addison putting together a stretch of 15-straight innings in which he didn't allow a single earned run.
Junior right-hander Brandon Wallace (2-3, 4.29 ERA) leads the staff in saves with four after closing out a 3-2 victory against No. 29 East Carolina last weekend.
The Blazer bats have been hot all season long. Six Blazers are hitting better than .300 with senior J.R. Bond leading the team with his .355 average. Junior outfielder Phil Bell is second with his .342 average and has stolen 16 bases. Senior third baseman Ryne Lovdahl is batting .338 and leads the team in home runs (5) and RBI (47).
