The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Open Three-Game C-USA Series Friday At Tulane
5/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 8, 2009
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- The UAB baseball team is on the road this weekend for a three-game series with Tulane that pits two teams in almost identical positions.
The Blazers (27-21, 8-9 C-USA) trail Tulane (28-21, 9-9 C-USA) by a half game for fifth place in the Conference USA standings, and the winner of this weekend's series will have an edge over the other heading into the final weekend of the regular season. Both teams are chasing Southern Miss (11-10 C-USA) for fourth place in the standings.
The series gets underway Friday night with a 6 p.m. (CT) first pitch at Tulane's Turchin Stadium. The final two games of the weekend are slated for Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Fans can follow all three games through Gametracker live stats at uabsports.com.
UAB has won three of its past four conference series after sweeping a rain-shortened, two-game set from Memphis a weekend ago. The Blazers have taken two out of three games in their last two conference road trips at Marshall (April 10-12) and at Southern Miss (April 17-18).
After splitting a pair of midweek games with Jacksonville State, UAB comes into the weekend with six starters hitting better than .300, led by Brint Hardy and Cody McMurry at .350. Luke Stewart leads the team with 12 home runs, while Digger Towe owns a team-best 54 RBI.
McMurry had a big series against Tulane last season in Birmingham, hitting two home runs with seven RBI, including a game-winning single in the ninth inning of the middle game. Hardy continues to lead the nation in stolen bases with 41 after tacking on another one in Wednesday's win over Jacksonville State. He leads by one over Tulane's Josh Prince, who also stole one Wednesday in a loss to New Orleans.
Despite that midweek loss, the Green Wave has also played well of late, winning four consecutive conference series. The team's last loss in a league series came in early April against second-ranked Rice.
The Green Wave is hitting an even .300 as a team, led by Prince at .354 and Sam Honeck at .345. Honeck leads the team in the power categories with 16 home runs and 65 RBI for a Tulane squad that has homered 61 times this season. Jeremy Schaffer has added 11 homers and 48 RBI for the Green Wave.
UAB and Tulane have split six regular-season meetings over the past two years with each team earning a series victory on the road. UAB took two out of three games from Tulane in New Orleans in 2007, and the Green Wave answered by taking two out of three in Birmingham in 2008. Tulane owns a 33-10 lead in the all-time series.
The Pitching Matchups
Friday
UAB - RHP Beau Pender (3-4, 5.69 ERA, 57 K, 25 BB, 55.1 IP)
Tulane - RHP Jonathan Garrett (5-1, 3.63 ERA, 43 K, 12 BB, 52.0 IP)
Saturday
UAB - LHP Shay Crawford (4-2, 5.49 ERA, 53 K, 31 BB, 59.0 IP)
Tulane - RHP Josh Zeid (5-0, 3.75 ERA, 39 K, 24 BB, 62.1 IP)
Sunday
UAB - RHP Kyle Roberson (6-5, 5.81 ERA, 53 K, 41 BB, 62.0 IP)
Tulane - RHP Conrad Flynn (5-3, 4.88 ERA, 44 K, 5 BB, 66.1 IP)
