The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Hosts Ball State This Weekend To Open Home Slate
2/25/2010 12:00:00β―AM | Baseball
Feb. 25, 2010
UAB Game Notes 
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- After opening the season on the road for the first time since 2004, the UAB baseball team is back in Birmingham to host Ball State this weekend in a four-game series at Young Memorial Field.
The Blazers and Cardinals begin the series Friday at 3 p.m. CT. The teams will then play a doubleheader Saturday at Noon, followed by a single game Sunday at 1 p.m.
UAB (0-1) is coming off a 6-5 loss in its season opener Tuesday at Mississippi State. The Blazers had the Bulldogs on the ropes for the entire game until MSU managed back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the ninth to pull out the one-run victory. Digger Towe, who led UAB with a .353 batting average last year, went 2-for-4 in the game with the Blazers' first home run of the year and two RBI.
Left-hander Shay Crawford got an inning of work in the Mississippi State contest and is slated to start game one of the series with Ball State. Crawford, who had the best record and ERA among UAB's starters last year at 5-2 and 5.14, held the Bulldogs scoreless in his only inning Tuesday.
Ball State (1-2) is slated to send right-hander Brad Piatt to the mound Friday. Piatt posted similar numbers to Crawford in 2009 with a 5-2 record and a 5.34 ERA. In his first outing of 2010 last Friday at then-No. 15 Arkansas, Piatt pitched three innings and allowed three runs.
Ball State won the middle game last weekend, 5-2, against a Razorback team that competed in last year's College World Series. The Cardinals dropped the first game, 9-3, and the third game, 10-2, to post a 1-2 record on the opening weekend. Kolbrin Vitek, a preseason All-American, hit .500 (7-for-14) in the Arkansas series on his way to Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week honors. Ball State reliever Morgan Coombs is also the reigning MAC West Pitcher of the Week.
The preseason favorite to win its league, Ball State is the defending MAC West champion. The Cardinals finished the 2009 campaign with a 26-25 overall record.
UAB leads 7-6 in the all-time series against Ball State with all 13 meetings between the teams coming since 2003 and being contested at Young Memorial Field. The Blazers swept the Cardinals in the first series in 2003, and the teams exchanged 2-1 series victories in 2005 and 2006. They met again in 2008 with UAB winning the first two games of a four-game series and UAB taking the last two.
Friday's series opener kicks off a nine-game home stand for UAB, marking the Blazers longest home stretch of the season and the longest for the program since the 2006 season.
Fans can follow all of this weekend's action with Gametracker live stats and All-Access streaming video at uabsports.com.
