|
UAB Softball Closes Out Regular Season With Series At East Carolina
May 2, 2008
UAB-East Carolina Game Notes GREENVILLE, N.C. --- The UAB softball team closes out its regular season with a three-game series against Conference USA foe East Carolina, in what could be a vital series for both clubs headed in the league tournament. The series begins with a doubleheader Saturday starting at Noon CDT and ends with the series finale on Sunday beginning at Noon CDT. Live stats will be available at UABsports.com. The series could play a crucial part in the seeding for UAB headed into the Conference USA Tournament May 8-10 in Houston. The Blazers are currently eighth in the league, while East Carolina is sixth. Southern Miss is sandwiched between them with an identical record as UAB, but has the tiebreaker thanks to its series victory over UAB earlier this season. The ninth seed, Memphis, will play the eighth seed Thursday morning for the right to face the regular season conference champion Houston that evening. The Blazers guard a 12-10 all-time record against the Pirates, who were defeated by UAB 2-1 in last year's series. The Blazers went on to win the first two games, 2-0 and 5-2, to give them their fourth three-game series win over the Pirates. UAB is 6-4 in the last 10 games against East Carolina. UAB is coming off a three-game sweep at the hands of with Houston. East Carolina took two games from Memphis. Leigh Walker is hitting a team-leading .311 in conference action this year. She has a career-high five home runs while driving in 16 runs. Andrea Rogers continues to produce in the three-hole, hitting .300 and scoring 26 runs for the season. Kayla Orr has stepped up for the Blazers in the last two C-USA series, hitting a team-leading .417 with two doubles. Jennifer Nelson and Kayla Harris will take to the circle this weekend for the Blazers. Nelson enters the weekend just eight strikeouts from becoming the fourth C-USA pitcher to reach the 800-strikeout mark.
East Carolina is led by Stacey Andrews whose hit 10 long balls with 36 RBI this season, tied with Vanessa Moreno for the team lead. Andrews has a team-leading .346 average with a 1.040 OPS. Moreno leads the club with 17 extra-base hits, including five homers for the season campaign. In the circle East Carolina is led by Brooke Swann, who has taken over the ace role after Toni Paisley was sidelined after pitching in just seven games. Swann has thrown 249 2-3 innings with 159 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.36. The Pirates lead the league with a .979 fielding percentage, having committed just 36 errors on the season. |
