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March 7, 2002

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Samford, UAB, and Birmingham-Southern will converge on Samford's campus to find out which is the best softball team in Birmingham this season in the inaugural Magic City Softball Classic. All six games of the tournament will be held at Samford's Bulldog Field.

The tournament will begin on Friday with a 3:30 p.m. match-up between UAB and Birmingham-Southern. Samford will face Birmingham-Southern at 5:30 p.m. and then face UAB at 7:30 p.m. to conclude the first day. On Saturday, UAB and BSC will square off at 1 p.m. UAB will face Samford at 3 p.m., and the tournament will wrap up with Samford against BSC at 5 p.m. Saturday night.

Not only due the teams represent Birmingham, but 19 of the 44 players in the tournament went to high school in the Birmingham area and 22 of them are from the State of Alabama. Birmingham-Southern has seven Birmingham area players. UAB and Samford have six players each from the Birmingham area. There will be three players from Vestavia Hills, Thompson, and Pelham high schools, two players are from Hueytown High School, and eight other area schools have one player each in the tournament.

"I think this is an exciting weekend for softball in Birmingham," said Samford head Coach Mark Voisard. "The players all have friends on the other teams that they want to beat, the parents are happy they don't have to travel to see their kids play, and its an opportunity for high school and younger kids to come out and see quality softball and know that most of these players are from this area."

Samford enters the tournament with a 10-9 overall record. The Bulldogs have not played in 11 days due to last week's cold spell that canceled seven games for the Bulldogs. "I think the lay-off hurts us a little," says Voisard. "It is hard to create game situations in practice and I think we need those game situations to make us a better team. On the other hand we had some injuries that had a chance to heal, but we are ready to start playing games again." Janet Middleton has the highest batting average of any player in the tournament with a .407 average. She has seven doubles, three home runs, and 14 RBI on the season. Angela Bednark is hitting .358 with a tournament-high seven home runs and 21 RBI. Kelly Smith is the third Bulldog hitting over .300, she has a .343 average with a home run and eight RBI.

UAB enters the tournament with an 11-7 record despite dropping four of its last five games. The Lady Blazers are led by Candice Hithe who is batting .375 on the year, Kai Paul is hitting .321 with seven doubles, three home runs, and 13 RBI, while Kelli Thompson is hitting .311 with a pair of homers, five doubles, and 14 RBI. Thompson is also UAB's leading pitcher with a 3-1 record and a 1.19 ERA. UAB boasts the highest team batting average and lowest team ERA of the three schools competing this weekend.

Birmingham Southern is in its first season of softball. Coach Tyra Perry's squad is 4-18 on the year with a starting line up composed entirely of freshmen. Kristen Fuhrmann who enters the weekend with a .308 batting average leads the Lady Panthers. Dawn Tredwell is BSC's most versatile performer. She is batting just .224 but has five doubles, two triples, a home run, and six RBI on the season and has scored a team-high 11 runs. She is also 2-7 in the circle with a 4.79 ERA.

"Birmingham-Southern has had some injuries, but they are trying to make a name for themselves so they are going to play their best this weekend. UAB we always have trouble with. They are a scrappy team that takes advantage of your mistakes, and I think we have a pretty good club so I think this is going to be a great weekend and hopefully we can make this a yearly tradition. I hope fans will come out and support this not only this year but in future years." Said Voisard.