UAB Baseball Heads To Tampa As #5 seed in first AAC Tournament

Photo by Ken Shepherd

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - May 20, 2024

Getting better – day by day – took precedence over postseason chatter for the UAB baseball team earlier this season. Because of that approach, the Blazers not only found a way into the AAC Tournament but they show up in Clearwater, Florida as one of the hottest teams in the conference over the final four weekends of the regular season.

It all began after back-to-back trips to Texas, where UAB dropped conference series to Rice and UTSA. At that point, the Blazers were 5-10 in AAC play with just one series win in five attempts and were in last place among the 10 conference baseball teams.

“I think the biggest thing is our kids just kind of got a sense of urgency to them,” said UAB head coach Casey Dunn, whose team opens AAC Tournament play against Wichita State on Tuesday morning at 9. “Coming off the series where we went out to Texas twice, kind of had a tough little run there. I told our guys it’s time to start winning. We needed to win games. I just continued to express that we need to improve, we got to start winning. I think our guys took it to heart. They continued to work, continued to get better and obviously put together a good four-week run there at the end of the season.”

UAB won two of three games in each of the final four AAC series. They won close games and blowouts. They played good defense and got solid pitching. They found ways to win, for the most part, and battled to the end in nearly every one of the four losses. They finished in sole possession of fifth place in the AAC standings.  

Most of all they improved.

“Really I think our guys grew each day, no question,” Dunn said. “There were a lot of those days where we had some tough wins (that) we had to battle back or finish off some tough ones. Also we were able to run away with a couple, especially down at Florida Atlantic. I think it was huge for us that we came out and had a couple of mercy rules to start off that weekend. The offense really struggled most of the year. I think that was big to go down there on the road, knowing that was a must win series, to jump on them and put up a bunch of runs. It kind of kept us going over the last couple of weeks.”

Having Blayze Berry on the mound every Friday was also a huge boost. The 5-foot-9, 178-pound senior from Columbus, Mississippi was 4-0 over the final month, allowing 17 hits, eight runs, all earned and six walks while striking out 29 strikeouts in 26 innings. Starting out each weekend with a win for the Blazers.

Berry, who was announced as a member of the All-Conference USA first team on Monday, was solid throughout conference play. He was 7-2 in conference games with the losses coming to AAC champion East Carolina and Rice. During conference games, Berry was tied for first in wins, second in strikeouts (61) and third in ERA (3.18) and innings pitched (56.2). Overall, he was 9-2 with a 2.71 ERA.

“Oh man, it’s unbelievable,” Dunn said of sending Berry to the mound on Friday nights. “You talk about confidence. Every kid on the team, everybody in the dugout believes in him. You know when he’s out there, you’re going to have a shot. To win seven out of nine games in this league, on a Friday night going against the other team’s best guy, that’s pretty strong, man. The year he put together, I think it’s hard to really appreciate what he’s done. I think we’ll appreciate it a lot more next year when he’s not with us. Blayze has been as good as anybody in this league. He’s gone head-to-head against the best and come out on top most of the time.”

Left fielder Logan Braunschweig, a second team all-conference selection, leads the team in batting average (.315), hits (58), runs (44), walks (44), on-base percentage (.448) and steals (21). Center fielder Darryl Buggs (.279, 55 hits, 38 runs) and shortstop Gavin Lewis Jr. (.295, 44 hits, 35 runs) are also offensive catalysts. Designated hitter Brayton Brown leads the team in home runs (10), RBI (47) and doubles (15).

Thanks to the late-season surge, the Blazers carry some confidence into their first AAC Tournament.

“I tell you what, I don’t think there’s any doubt it helps,” Dunn said of entering during a hot streak. “Some teams that have history, tradition and they’re used to being in this format and being down here every year it doesn’t matter as much. For our guys, being our first trip and really trying to grow within this league and really trying to get to the top of this league, I think it’s important that we come in feeling good. Our guys know that we’re playing as good as we’ve played all year right now. We’ll see if that’s good enough come tomorrow. I at least know we’re playing our best ball at this point.”

UAB is in a difficult side of the bracket with three teams – No. 1 seed East Carolina, No. 4 Wichita State and No. 8 Rice – that beat the Blazers in a weekend series. UAB’s opening opponent, Wichita State, won two straight after the Blazers won the opener on the opening weekend of AAC regular season play. The Blazers will start Colin Daniels, who was a second team all-conference selection, on the mound. Daniels, who was 7-3 with 3.05 ERA, is well rested after behind held out in the regular season ending series win over USF.

“We kind of knew we were in the tournament after last Friday, so we were able to hold Collin Daniel back,” Dunn said. “It would be really tough to ask Blayze to turn around from a Thursday to a Tuesday on real short rest for the second straight week. Being able to hold Collin back, I think was important to give us a fresh guy.”

Dunn hopes today is the start of a strong tournament for his team. The goal is to win the tournament. However, in a way, just making it to the tournament is an important step for the program.

“We got more goals out there but we accomplished something we set out to do,” Dunn said. “I think, as you’re building a program, that’s important. Setting benchmarks that are achievable and keep you headed in the right direction. That’s kind of where we’re at. It’s a progression. I’d love to flip the script and be at the top of this league overnight. But reality is there are a lot of good programs, a lot of good schools that we’ve got to catch up to. I think we’ve taken a good step.”