The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Baseball Set For Midweek Series With Troy
4/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 21, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB and Troy baseball teams will kick of a home-and-home midweek series Tuesday when the Blazers travel to Troy for a 6 p.m. (CT) first pitch. The Trojans make the return trip to Young Memorial Field on Wednesday with game time set for 6:30 p.m.
Fans can follow both games through Gametracker live stats on www.uabsports.com. Wednesday's game will also feature live video through the website's All-Access package and will be carried live in Birmingham on WSPZ-AM 690.
UAB won two out of three games over the weekend at Southern Miss, falling 7-4 in Friday's series opener and sweeping a Saturday doubleheader with wins of 11-5 and 4-1. Kyle Roberson carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning on Saturday's second game on his way to Conference USA Pitcher of the Week honors.
The Blazers, currently tied for sixth in Conference USA, enter their midweek series with Troy at 22-17 overall, having won six of their past eight contests.
UAB is hitting .313 as a team, led by Digger Towe at .377. Towe also leads the Blazers in RBI with 49, followed by Cody McMurry with 40. Luke Stewart tops the club with 10 home runs, followed by McMurry with nine. UAB has swiped 83 bases as a team, led by NCAA steals leader Brint Hardy with 35.
The Blazers will send right-hander James Oliver (2-2, 6.14 ERA) to the mound Tuesday, and left-hander Colin McMurry (2-1, 3.79 ERA) is slated to make the start Wednesday. UAB owns a team ERA of 5.16 so far in 2009.
Troy enters Tuesday's contest on a five-game winning streak, but the Trojans have played just once in the past nine days. Troy swept a three-game series two weekends ago against Florida Atlantic but played only one game this past weekend at UALR because of rain in Little Rock. The Trojans, currently third in the Sun Belt Conference, won that game to improve to 23-13 on the season.
Brett Henry owns the team's best batting average, hitting .354 for a Trojan squad that enters the week at .304 with seven regulars better than .300. Ryan Ditthardt leads Troy in the power categories with seven home runs and 44 RBI. Michael Precise owns a team-best 13 doubles.
On the mound, Troy is slated to start right-hander Jason Walls (2-2, 3.70 ERA) on Tuesday. Right-hander Tim Wheeler (2-3, 10.24 ERA) is projected as the Wednesday starter. The Trojans enter the week with a team ERA of 5.55.
UAB trails 20-16 in the all-time series with Troy, dating back to 1979. UAB has won three of the past four meetings against Troy, all since the arrival of head coach Brian Shoop. The Blazers and Trojans split two meetings in 2007 with each team winning at home. In 2008, UAB won 10-5 on March 25 in Birmingham and 13-2 on May 13 in Troy.
