May 4, 2008

East Carolina 3, UAB 2

GREENVILLE, N.C. --- The UAB softball team lost its regular season finale to East Carolina, who rallied to scored three runs over two late innings to win 3-2, here Sunday at the ECU Softball Complex.

The Blazers closed out their regular season with a 24-34 overall record and 9-15 mark in Conference USA games. The Pirates move to an overall record of 35-27 and 10-12 in league play.

Jennifer Nelson reached the 800-strikeout mark in the fourth inning with her third strikeout of the game and 219th of the season. The lefty becomes the fourth C-USA pitcher to reach the milestone.

Andrea Rogers and Cameron Skates both went 2-for-3 at the plate and were responsible for both of the Blazers' runs. Rogers scored on Skates' single in the second, the 20th of the year for the sophomore. Skates later scored a run in the seventh inning after her 10th double of the year.

With the loss the Blazers were locked into the No. 8-seed in the upcoming Conference USA Championship, May 8-10, in Houston and will face No. 9 Memphis Thursday morning. The winner of that game will then play No. 1 Houston later that evening.

UAB came into the day eighth in the conference standings and with a win against East Carolina and with the Southern Miss loss to UCF, would have moved into the sixth spot and would have had to play Tulsa, a team that the Blazers took two games from earlier this season.

The Pirates scored one run in the fourth and two runs in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead. The Blazers would score a run in the top of the seventh inning, but three ground ball outs gave East Carolina the series win.

Cristen Aona led off the fourth with a single to the left side and advanced two bases when Holly Krzan's errant throw hit Aona in the helmet and rolled into foul territory down the right field line. She would score on wild pitch.

Both of the Pirates runs in the fifth inning would score on a sacrifice fly by Vanessa Moreno. Jillian Galllagher, pinch running for Jessica Johnson who started off the inning with a walk, scored on the ball hit to right field.

The throw home on the sacrifice fly went up the third base line away from UAB catcher Andrea Rogers and bounced away giving Stacey Andrews the chance to slide in safely at home, giving East Carolina the 3-1 lead.

Skates doubled with one out in the Blazers' seventh. She moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.

Nelson reached the 800-K mark in the fourth inning, striking out Sumner looking. She entered the game with 797-career strikeouts and three shy of the plateau.

She joins ECU's Kelli Harrell (948), DePaul's Lindsay Chouinard (858) and Houston's Angel Shamblin (822). The lefty has 137 more strikeouts than the next pitcher of the C-USA strikeout chart.

The rubber game of the series was an intense matchup from the start, with both teams looking to set the tone. The Blazers thwarted two early threats by the Pirates that keep them off the board in the early innings.

The game began with the Pirates putting three runners on board in the first inning, but failing to score a run. A double steal backfired on the Pirates and two Nelson strikeouts in the first inning kept the game scoreless.

The Blazers protected their one-run lead getting two outs with the bases loaded to end the second. Skates snagged a line drive and Krzan threw out Merrida at first base to end the inning.