May 8, 2011
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By Sarah Tarasewicz
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - With regular-season play wrapped for 2011, the No. 6 seed UCF softball team learned Sunday that it will face No. 3 UAB in the opening round of the Conference USA Championship hosted by East Carolina Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
The Knights concluded regular-season play with a 21-31 record on the season and an 11-13 C-USA record to earn the sixth seed, while the Blazers ended their regular-season schedule with a 38-16 overall record and a 17-6 league clip to take the No. 3 seed.
UCF holds an 8-10 record in the all-time series with the Blazers heading into the contest.
In the teams' three-game series earlier in the year, UAB took two games from the Black and Gold at the UCF Softball Complex, with UCF winning the first contest, 6-0, behind a career-performance in the circle by senior Diana Rojas (Miami, Fla.) in which she tallied her first-career complete-game shutout and stuck out three, before dropping two-straight to the Blazers to close out the series.
Tiffany Lane (Moreno Valley, Calif.) paced the Knights in that series with a .571 batting average, going 4-for-7 with two runs scored and a RBI, while Abby McClain (Waterloo, Iowa) also had an impressive outing for the Black and Gold. The senior posted three hits and scored a pair of runs in the series, and also hit a solo home run in the opening-game win.
If the Knights win their contest against the Blazers Thursday afternoon, they would play either No. 2 seed Tulsa or No. 7 seed Marshall in the semifinals Friday at 2 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. and will air live on CBS College.