Rising stars of the diamond
Head coach promises Blazers a stronger upcoming season
DESIGN BY LAKYN SHEPARD/ART EDITOR
PHOTO COURTESY OF UAB ATHLETICS
Michael Calhoun
Sports Reporter
mcal37@uab.edu
As the new baseball season approaches, Brian Shoop, head coach, reminds Blazers that their record last year is not indicative of their actual performance on the field.
“How do you make a case that it was a good season when you win 21 games,” said Brian Shoop, UAB Baseball head coach. “I am grateful for the group of guys I had and was proud of them for us taking a step forward and getting back to the conference tournament. I hope that this will be a step in the right direction as we move forward. I hope that it becomes a regular thing again like it was three or four years ago.”
The UAB Blazer Baseball team is coming off a season where they finished 13-17 in Conference USA and 21-33 overall. It was a season where they returned to the conference tournament for the first time since 2016. Shoop came to UAB after serving as the head coach of the Birmingham Southern baseball coach for 17 seasons where he compiled a 699-300-1 record.
At Birmingham Southern, Shoop’s teams averaged 41 wins a season and captured nine regular season conference titles and eight league tournament championships. He led his squads to 10 regional appearances with three runner-up finishes and four regional titles. In 2001, Birmingham Southern’s final year of NAIA competition, Shoop led the Panthers to a school record 55 wins on the way to claiming the NAIA National Championship, the program’s first ever title. Shoop was named the 2001 NAIA National Coach of the Year and Region XI Coach of the Year from the American Baseball Coaches Association.
Tyler Tolbert is a rising junior who last year was one of only two players to play in all 54 games and also started 53 of them. He cracked into UAB’s top-10 single records with 24 stolen bases and ranked third in Conference USA in stolen base attempts (29) and first in stolen bases.
“I was proud of myself as well as my teammates for hanging in there when we were struggling a little bit,” Tolbert said. “And I was ultimately glad we made it back to the conference tournament. However, we know that isn’t the end goal and we would like to make it further and that is our goal going into this season.”
“It was cool to lead the team in different categories and be named to different postseason teams and such but at the end of the day, we all just want to win games.” Carter Pharis said. “And compete so the personal accolades are nice but they mean nothing without my teammates behind me.”
UAB has several newcomers joining the squad this season, one of them being rising junior Tanner Rusk. He comes to UAB from Wallace State Community College. Rusk posted a 2-2 record with one start as a sophomore where he logged 19.0 innings, with 2.84 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 2018. He made 15 appearances, throwing 27.1 innings with a perfect 3-0 record as a freshman. Rusk sat down 23 batters to go along one save and a 3.62 ERA in his freshman season. UAB plays four teams from the SEC this season; Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and in state foes, Auburn and Alabama.
They will also hook up with in state schools, Alabama State and Samford this season. UAB opens their campaign on February 15 at 4 p.m. against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville at Regions Field.
