April 10, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Winners of four straight, the UAB Blazers travel to play No. 7 Rice this weekend at Reckling Park in Houston. The Blazers enter the weekend with a record of 14-17 (1-5 C-USA), while Rice comes in at 24-10 (7-2 C-USA). Rice holds the all-time series lead over UAB, 7-0. This weekend will be the first time Rice has ever been ranked outside the top three nationally when meeting up with UAB.

The series gets underway Friday night at 6:30 p.m. and continues with game two on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The series finale will be played Sunday at 12:00 p.m. All three games can be followed live on Gametracker at UABsports.com.

Dustin Colburn (1-1, 13.50) will make his first weekend start of the season on Friday after throwing 6.0 strong innings at Alabama in his second start of the season April 1.

Colburn will be opposed by Rice standout Ryan Berry (4-2, 2.29). The sophomore right-hander has 55 strikeouts on the campaign for the Owls.

Junior James Oliver (2-1, 4.02) will take the mound for the Blazers on Saturday having earned another weekend start by throwing a complete game victory against Presbyterian last weekend.

On Sunday, Blazer ace Mitch Kloskowski (4-3, 3.99) will get the start. Kloskowski is coming off back-to-back victories against Alabama and Alabama A&M and leads the Blazers with 38 strikeouts.

Taking the mound for Rice on Saturday will be Chris Kelley (4-1, 2.17) and on Sunday, Matt Langwell (3-0, 4.89) will take the hill.

The Blazers will need to maintain the offensive tone they set in the midweek. In the team's two midweek victories against Alabama A&M and Samford, UAB combined to post 25 runs on 26 hits.

First baseman Ryan Keedy leads the Blazers offensively and continues to rank amongst the elite hitters in Conference USA. Keedy is batting .425 with four home runs and 32 RBI.

Second baseman Nick Crawford has been on fire at the plate in recent games, upping his season batting average to .309, which he couples with a team-leading .480 on base percentage.

A club that can do it all, Rice holds a team batting average of .303 and a staff ERA of 3.70.

Owl shortstop Rick Hague leads the team at the plate with his .367 batting average, five home runs and 30 RBI. The freshman has struggled defensively, however, leading Conference USA with 13 errors.

Preseason Conference USA Player of the Year Aaron Luna has also been strong at the plate, batting .341 with five homers and 27 RBI. In all, six Owls are batting .320 or better.