Third-ranked Owls travel to Birmingham to face UAB

CUSA Fans sports writer Joey Whelan brings us a preview of the weekend series pitting the UAB Blazers against the visiting Rice Owls.

Rice continues to roll, pushing their win streak to seven after sweeping UCF last weekend and beating Sam Houston State on Tuesday. In their last four games the Owls have outscored their opponents 28-5. Rice is atop C-USA at 13-2 and now gets set to travel to Birmingham, Alabama for a three-game series with UAB.

The Blazers come into this weekend’s series on a three-game losing streak, having dropped two games to Southern Miss and a game to Kennesaw State. Offensively UAB has faired well, batting .293 on the year with 275 runs scored. Leading the way have been seniors J.R. Bond and Ryne Lovdahl, each who are batting .354 with more than 35 RBIs each. UAB has relied on small ball and speed to produce runs, having only hit 14 home runs but having stolen 58 bases in 72 attempts.

Pitching has been the source of trouble for UAB. The Blazers sport a team ERA of 5.22 with no starters having a winning record or an ERA under 4. Brandon Flaherty and Grant Addison have been strong out of the bullpen, but have only amassed 33.2 innings of work on the season. The rest of the bullpen has struggled tremendously; three pitchers that have logged more than 20 innings of relief work have ERAs over 5.

Rice Owls @ UAB Blazers Prediction:
Rice is at peak performance levels right now, and with its recent win over Texas, has proven that it is more than deserving of its #3 ranking nationally. UAB isn’t too far behind in terms of offensive prowess, but their pitching is far behind the Owls. Despite being on the road, Rice will still come away with a series sweep and run their win streak to 10 games.