The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Battles Samford In Home-And-Home Midweek Series
3/31/2009 12:00:00β―AM | Baseball
March 31, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- UAB and Samford are set for a pair of home-and-home midweek matchups on the baseball diamond, starting Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. (CT) at Young Memorial Field.
The teams will resume a crosstown rivalry that dates back to 1983 and has favored UAB. The Blazers have won 51 of the 67 all-time meetings between the schools, including three of the past five and both meetings last season.
The 2008 Blazers defeated Samford 10-6 at home and earned a 16-8 victory on the road on the strength of a 4-for-5 effort at the plate and five RBI from Luke Stewart.
Stewart enters Tuesday's game as the hottest UAB hitter, coming off a week in which he hit .727 with three home runs and 10 RBI over four games. Those numbers propelled him to Conference USA Co-Hitter of the Week honors and helped UAB post a 3-1 record as it improved to 14-10 on the season.
Stewart continues to lead the Blazers in home runs with eight, while Digger Towe has taken over the team lead in both batting average (.408) and RBI (34). Towe was not far behind Stewart's numbers last week, hitting .588 with a pair of homers and eight RBI over the four games, including a three-game weekend series sweep of Savannah State.
Beau Pender will take the mound Tuesday for UAB in his fourth start of the season. Tops among Blazer starters with a 2.92 ERA, Pender has struck out 30 batters and walked just eight in 24.2 innings while posting a 1-1 record.
Pender's counterpart from Samford will be Kyle Putkonen, who also enters with a 1-1 record but carries a higher ERA at 13.50 through five appearances and 10 total innings.
As a team, Samford enters the midweek series at 10-15 after a three-game Southern Conference sweep of UNC Greensboro over the weekend. Like UAB, which racked up 39 runs in its series with Savannah State, the Bulldogs' offense piled up big numbers, scoring 37 runs for the series and totaling 12 hits in each game.
David Schulze leads Samford at the plate with a .363 batting average and 32 RBI, while his four home runs rank second on the team to Trey Hayes' five long balls. Wayne Miller is close behind Schulze with a .360 average for a Samford squad that hits .285 as a team.
After Tuesday's meeting at UAB, the teams will be back in action Wednesday at Samford for a 6 p.m. (CT) first pitch.
Fans can follow both games through Gametracker live stats at www.uabsports.com. Tuesday's game will also feature live video and live audio through the All-Access package on the site.
