The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Hosts Familiar Foe East Carolina For Weekend Series
3/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 20, 2009
Live Stats - Game 1 •
Live Stats - Game 2 • Live Stats - Game 3
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - This weekend the UAB softball team will play host to Conference USA rival East Carolina for a three-game series starting on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT at George Ward Park.
"This is a good rivalry," said UAB head coach Marla Townsend. "We are both entering the game 3-3 in Conference USA. It's a crucial series that we need to win."
The Blazers (10-14, 3-3 C-USA) and the Pirates (16-9, 3-3 C-USA) will be meeting for the 26th time when they square off in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. UAB has only played one opponent, Southern Miss, more times in softball's 10-year history (33).
The Blazers lead the all-time series, 13-12.
The last time the two teams met, East Carolina won, 3-2, in Greenville, N.C., to win the series, 2-1, on May 4 last season.
The last Blazer win against the Pirates came last year with a 2-0 road victory in the second game of a doubleheader on May 3.
"We are going to come out and play hard," said Townsend. "A series win would help build some momentum heading into next week."
Last Time Out
The Blazers opened up their 2009 C-USA road schedule with a trip to UCF. After dropping the first game, 7-0, UAB won the second game of the day, 7-4, last Saturday. The Knights picked up the series win with a 6-5 victory on Sunday.
In Sunday's game, UAB trailed the entire game until taking the lead, 5-4, in the sixth inning. But UCF was able to score two runs in the bottom of the sixth to reclaim the lead and pick up their third conference win of the season.
Junior Martina Landrum hit a team-high .400 with four hits and two runs scored over the three-game series. Sophomore Amanda Allen hit .333 with one home run and five RBI.
Scouting East Carolina
The Pirates enter the contest 16-9 on the season and 3-3 in conference play.
In its last outing, East Carolina went scoreless through nine innings before scoring five in the 10th to claim a win over N.C. State on Thursday, 5-0.
In league play this season, the Pirates started off with two wins and a lost against Houston in Greenville, N.C. In the next C-USA matchup, ECU dropped two of three against Southern Miss in Hattiesburg last weekend.
Jessica Johnson leads the Pirates with 24 hits, a .343 batting average and a .425 on base percentage. As a team the Pirates are batting .237, which ranks ninth in C-USA.
East Carolina's pitching is led by two-time 2009 C-USA Pitcher of the Week, Toni Paisley (11-4). Paisley leads C-USA with a 1.66 ERA and 105 strikeouts. She is holding opponents to a .183 batting average. As a team, ECU has a conference-best 2.04 ERA.
At the outset of the season, ECU was picked to finish second in the league with eight starters and 13 letterwinners returning from last year's squad that earned a berth in the NCAA Regionals.
