March 18, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -

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The Samford Bulldogs will be looking for their school-record breaking eighth-straight victory at George Ward Park today as they travel to UAB for a 6 p.m. single game.

The Bulldogs last loss came against UAB 11-8 in nine innings on March 8. Samford defeated the Blazers a day earlier 1-0 at the Magic City Classic hosted by Birmingham-Southern. Since that loss, Samford has defeated Birmingham Southern once, Alabama State, Alabama A&M, and Eastern Illinois twice each to tie the school record for most consecutive wins set at the end of the 2001 season.

Samford has hit 10 home runs over the last five games including a school record four homer game against Alabama A&M on Mar. 15. The Bulldogs hit 17 home runs all of last season and already have hit 20 homers this year. Angela Bednark's single season record of nine home runs set last season is already in jeopardy as Michelle Wright has hit seven so far this year.

Wright became Samford's all-time RBI leader when she belted a two-run home run to tie the EIU game on Sunday. She drove in her 66th and 67th career runs passing Janet Middleton (1999-2002). She is also the Samford leader in career runs scored have crossed the plate 79 times. She is in second place on the career home run list with 15 and the career doubles list with 31. Wright earned MVP honors of the Samford Invitational.

Bednark added three RBI over the weekend to give her 62 for her career. She trails Wright by five. It is only a month into the season but the Bulldogs are on pace to set a school record for team batting average and three players are currently batting above Sunny Russ' 1996 mark of .384. As a team Samford is batting .330 the school record is .272 set in 1993.

UAB enters the game 15-12 overall and 1-2 in Conference USA after dropping two of three to #21 South Florida in its conference opener over the weekend. The Blazers are 4-2 this season against teams from the Atlantic Sun. UAB sweep Georgia State and has split with Troy State and Samford earlier in the season. The two teams will meet one more time this season at Samford on April 29.