The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Game Week Finally Here For UAB Baseball Team
2/16/2009 12:00:00β―AM | Baseball
Feb. 16, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- When the UAB baseball team takes the field for its season opener this Friday against Radford, it will have been nearly nine months since the Blazers' 2008 season came to a close.
Nine months since the Blazers closed the '08 campaign by winning six of their final nine games.
Nine months since they ended the regular season with a series win against No. 27 Southern Miss.
Nine months since they upset fifth-ranked Rice in the opening round of the Conference USA tournament.
If momentum can carry over through a nine-month layoff, then UAB has positioned itself for a successful 2009 season.
But head coach Brian Shoop isn't banking on momentum. What he's banking on is a change in mindset created by that late-season success.
"On one hand, I don't think it has a huge impact, but, on the other hand, it was a good way to finish," Shoop says. "We finished strongly and against good competition. That run at the end of the season probably did help our kids, to some degree, to break a mental barrier. Now we have to do it over a long period of time."
A total of 26 players return for UAB from a 2008 squad that defeated five NCAA Regional teams. That group will join 10 newcomers to form a team that looks to continue its improvement in the program's third year under Shoop.
UAB will get its first test this weekend with a three-game series against Radford at Young Memorial Field. Friday's first pitch is set for 3 p.m. CT as the Blazers welcome the first of two Big South opponents to Birmingham.
Presbyterian is the other Big South opponent on the schedule, and the Blue Hose will visit Young Memorial for the second weekend of the season (Feb. 27-March 1). In total, UAB will play three of its first four weekends at home as the Blazers build toward their first conference series March 20-22 at Houston.
UAB is looking to improve on a 26-34 record in a 2008 season that saw the team continue to make strides under Shoop. The Blazers finished second in the league in both team batting and team fielding a season ago. In addition to the five wins over NCAA Regional teams, UAB's victory over Rice in the conference tournament was the first ever for the program over a top five team.
