The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Heads To Tuscaloosa For Midweek Contest At Alabama
3/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 21, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB baseball team visits Alabama on Tuesday in midweek baseball action. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. CT at Alabama's Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
The Blazers, which took both 2010 meetings from the Crimson Tide, are coming off a three-game sweep of UT Martin, while Alabama won two out of three games from Ole Miss over the weekend.
Game Information
Tuesday (6:05 p.m. CT) -- Sewell-Thomas Stadium
Pitching Probables: RHP Ryan Woolley (UAB) vs. RHP Charley Sullivan (Alabama)
Live Coverage
Tuesday's game will be carried live in the Birmingham area on WAPI-AM 1070 with David Crane and Brooks Webb on the call. Fans can also follow the action through Gametracker live stats at uabsports.com.
About UAB
UAB (11-8) is coming off its third series sweep of the season after taking three games from UT Martin over the weekend. Tuesday's contest with Alabama will be the Blazers' final tune-up before they begin Conference USA action this weekend at Marshall.
Offensively, UAB's Jamal Austin ranks third in C-USA with a .403 batting average and second in the league with 13 stolen bases. Ivan De Jesus, who has only started the past seven games coming off an injury, is hitting .448 (13-for-29) but does not have enough at-bats yet to qualify for the league rankings. Patrick Palmeiro continues to lead the Blazers in the power categories with 10 extra-base hits and 14 RBI.
UAB will send right-hander Ryan Woolley (3-2, 2.38 ERA) to the mound to start Tuesday's contest. Woolley worked eight innings without allowing an earned run in his last start this past Friday against UT Martin. The UAB pitching staff owns a team ERA of 3.30 and is holding opponents to a .236 batting average.
UAB coach Brian Shoop is now in his fifth year with the Blazers. He owns a record of 121-126 (.490) at the school and a career record of 813-433-1 (.652) in 22 total years as a head coach.
Scouting Alabama
Alabama (13-7) opened SEC play over the weekend by taking two out of three games at Ole Miss. The Crimson Tide rebounded from a 4-0 shutout loss in the series opener to claim the series with a 7-5 win on Saturday and a 6-4 victory on Sunday. Alabama has won nine of its past 12 games and is receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 and NCBWA polls.
Brock Bennett paces the Alabama offensive attack with a .403 batting average, while Taylor Dugas tops the team with 13 extra-base hits, and Jared Reaves owns a team-best 21 RBI. The Crimson Tide is hitting .283 as a team and has out-scored its opponents 119-83 on the year.
Alabama is slated to send right-hander Charley Sullivan (0-1, 3.27 ERA) to the mound on Tuesday against UAB. Sullivan will be making his seventh appearance and his first start of the year. As a pitching staff, the Crimson Tide owns a 3.28 team ERA with 150 strikeouts and 48 walks.
Alabama is coached by Mitch Gaspard, who owns a career record of 269-160 in eight years and a mark of 58-32 in two years with the Crimson Tide.
All-Time Versus Alabama
UAB trails 37-17 in the all-time series with Alabama, dating back to the first year of Blazer baseball in 1979. Alabama has won seven of the past 11 meetings, but UAB took both meetings from the Crimson Tide last year.
The Blazers earned a 6-4 win at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala. (3/31/10) and an 11-4 victory at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (4/6/10) to sweep the season series from the Crimson Tide for the first time since 2001. Alabama was ranked No. 19 in the first meeting and No. 23 in the second.
The road victory last year was UAB's first win in Tuscaloosa since 2001. UAB is 6-21 all-time against Alabama in games played in Tuscaloosa.
Recapping the Sweep of UT Martin
After dropping a pair of midweek games to Samford, UAB posted its third series sweep of the season by taking three games from UT Martin in Birmingham over the weekend. After winning the opening game 4-2, the Blazers pulled out a 2-1, 12-inning win on Saturday and overcame a four-run deficit for an 8-6 win on Sunday.
Pitching was again the key for the Blazers in the first two games of the series. Ryan Woolley went eight innings without allowing an earned run in Friday's opener, while Dillon Napoleon and Ben Bullard combined to hold UT Martin to just one run in 12 innings on Saturday. In Sunday's game, UAB trailed 6-2 through seven innings before exploding for six runs in the eighth. It matched UAB's biggest inning of the season.
Ivan De Jesus led the Blazers offensively last week with a .368 batting average (7-for-19) over the five games. John Frost drove in a team-best six runs on the week.
Ryan Nance posted saves in two of the three wins against UT Martin as he continued his strong start to the season. Nance now has four saves and has not allowed a run in 11.2 innings of work.
