Feb. 28, 2008

Game Notes

After spending the last three weeks at various locations around the nation, the UAB softball team will have an extended chance to play in front of its home crowd when it competes as of one of seven teams in this year's Magic City Classic being played at Spain Park High School in Hoover.

The Blazers (9-8) will play five games over three days, beginning with a contest against at 3:30 p.m. Friday verses Alabama State followed by a matchup with Birmingham-Southern at 5:45 p.m. Saturday UAB will tangle with Samford and Georgia Southern starting at 1:15 p.m. UAB will square off with Columbia (N.Y.) in the weekend's final game at 1:15 p.m. Sunday. All of the Blazers' games will be held at Spain Park HS field located to the west of the school.

The Blazers have posted a 21-5 record. UAB has also won all but one title during the tournament.

Hot bats have been the pace car for UAB of late, with three players hitting over .500 during the Blazers stint out west.

Kayla Harris drove her season average up nearly 100 points after hitting .583 (7-of-12). She connected for one homer and drove in six during the Mustang Classic. Not to be outdone Andrea Rogers continued to stay red-hot at the plate. Rogers enters the weekend with a team-high .400 batting average and has the third highest slugging percentage (.467) despite not having hit a home run this season. More importantly Rogers scored five out of the eight times she reached base last weekend. Holly Krzan walked five times and collected three doubles, and is now hitting .392 on the season and leading the Blazers in several offensive categories, including hits (20), runs (14), doubles (6), total bases (29) and slugging percentage (.569).

In the circle this weekend for UAB will be Jennifer Nelson and Kayla Harris. This one-two punch struggled against the hot-hitting west coast teams and looks to return to dominating force at the Magic City Classic. Prior to the four-game swing out west, Harris and Nelson combined for 2.04 ERA and held opponents to a .196 average. Nelson (5-5) carries a 3.16 ERA into this weekend having tossed 73.0 thus far. Her 88 strikeouts is far and above the top figure in the conference this season. Harris (4-3) has seen less time than Nelson in the circle but has been very effective. In just 42.0 innings pitched, she has struckout 27 and has done a good job at keeping the ball inside the park even though she has a high fly ball to ground out percentage.

Gametracker links will be available for all of UAB's games this weekend.