The Crimson Tide and Tigers will meet for the 359th time on Thursday evening
April 1, 2015
TUSCALOOSA, AL - Alabama remains at home to welcome the third-ranked LSU Tigers to Hoover. The two teams are scheduled for a three-game series from Thursday until Saturday inside Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
The Tide and Tigers will begin the series on Thursday night with a 7:00 p.m. CT first pitch on SECN+. Friday's second game is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. CT start as well, with the series wrapping up at 2:00 p.m. CT on Saturday afternoon.
FOLLOW THE TIDE
Fans can watch/follow the three-game series via the outlets below:
Gametracker: RollTide.com
Listen: 99.1 FM (Tuscaloosa) / CTSN / TuneIn App
Web: SECN+
Twitter: @AlabamaBSB
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
THURSDAY: UA -- Taylor Guilbeau (Sr., LHP) vs. LSU -- Jared Poche' (So., LHP)
FRIDAY: UA -- Will Carter (Jr., RHP) vs. LSU -- Alex Lange (Fr., RHP)
SATURDAY: UA -- Geoffrey Bramblett (So., RHP) vs. LSU -- Jake Godfrey (Fr., RHP)
LEADING OFF
· Alabama and LSU will meet the 359th time in program history on Thursday evening when the two teams square off for the series opener. The Crimson Tide own the all-time series, 197-158-3, but the Tigers have won eight of the last 10 contests between the two. Last season, rain shortened the series between the two SEC West foes, forcing a doubleheader and canceling the final game of the series.
· LSU is coming off an 8-6 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday evening. Prior to the midweek series, the Tigers dropped two of three games to Kentucky. LSU fell in the first and third games of the weekend, claiming the middle matchup between the two SEC foes.
· Alabama will continue with its current weekend rotation, starting senior left-hander Taylor Guilbeau in Thursday's first game and tossing junior righty Will Carter on Friday evening. UA will finish off the three-game set tossing sophomore right-hander Geoffrey Bramblett against the Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
· LSU will feature a pair of freshmen and a sophomore against the Tide this weekend. The Tigers will start sophomore Jared Poche' on Thursday evening, and then will hand the ball to freshman Alex Lange on Friday evening. Rounding out the weekend for LSU is first-year man Jake Godfrey on Saturday afternoon.
· This weekend will feature numerous promotions. Thursday and Friday will feature postgame fireworks while Thursday will also be a "Dollar Dog Night" with $1 hot dogs. Friday's contest is "First Responders Night" with free admission to all police, fire and EMT workers. Saturday's finale will feature $1 youth tickets and live music before the game from country artist Bobby Cool, and then will wrap up with some activities for the kids including running the bases and getting autographs after the series finale.
SCOUTING ALABAMA
· The Crimson Tide comes into Thursday's game with LSU after earning a 7-2 win on Tuesday at UAB. Prior the midweek contest, Alabama took one of three games from fourth-ranked Florida in Gainesville.
· In the midweek game at UAB, Alabama collected a season-high tying 10 free passes on its way to a 7-2 win. The Tide put together a four-run fifth inning highlighted by two hits, three walks and two HBP.
· Alabama was forced to play a doubleheader at Florida last Friday after rain postponed Thursday's series opener. In the first game of the doubleheader, UA rallied for 10 runs over the final four frames to claim the 12-9, extra-innings win. The two teams were knotted up at 9-9 at the end of regulation and were forced to go into extras. In the top of the 10th, UA collected three runs and Ray Castillo shut down the Gators for his third win of the season.
· The second game of Friday's twinbill saw the Gators jump out to an early 5-0 lead by the end of the first inning. Alabama would bounce back with one run in the top of the second, but could score no more. Florida would go on to add three more runs by evening's end to take the 8-1 victory.
· In Saturday's rubber match, Florida struck first, putting up one run in the bottom of the fourth. The two teams would then trade scoring innings through the top of the sixth to set the Tide ahead 4-3. In the bottom of the seventh, UF would even it up with one run and would then add three in the bottom of the eighth to take the 7-4 win in the series finale.
· UA is led offensively by Casey Hughston and Mikey White, both team leaders in many statistical categories.
· Hughston ranks third in the conference in batting average (.392) and slugging percentage (.647), is tied for fourth in doubles (10), tied for fifth in total bases (66), ranks sixth in on-base percentage (.458) and is tied for seventh in RBI (27). The sophomore is also the team leader in average, hits, doubles, home runs, RBI and slugging percentage, while tying for the team lead in stolen bases at a perfect 10-for-10.
· Alabama is also receiving a strong offensive effort from White. The junior shortstop is tied for the league lead in triples (5), and also ranks sixth in slugging percentage (.622) and seventh in on-base percentage (.458).
· The Tide has collected 13 multi-hit efforts this season and is 10-3 when recording double-digit hit totals. Four of those nine double-digit hitting efforts have come in SEC play, with the Tide owning a 3-1 record in those games.
· UA kicked off the season with a record-setting weekend against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
· Twelve of the Crimson Tide's 40 hits were for extra bases, including 10 doubles and two triples. The Tide finished the weekend batting .360 as a team and accumulating 37 total runs, the most since Alabama scored 38 against the University of Illinois-Chicago on Feb. 26-27, 2010.
· The Alabama offense put together a 19-0 performance in Sunday's finale thanks to 15 hits, including five-RBI performances from Kyle Overstreet and Hughston. Hughston and Overstreet were the first pair of UA players to each record five RBI in the same game since Clay Jones and Brett Booth did it against UIC on Feb. 27, 2010.
· Alabama's starters limited UMES to just six total hits while striking out 19 batters across 19.0 IP for the weekend.
· Alabama returns 23 letterwinners from last season's team that reached the NCAA Tallahassee Regional. The 2015 Tide also features five positional returners, and three pitchers who made five or more starts last season.
SCOUTING LSU
· LSU comes to Hoover after claiming an 8-6 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday evening. Prior to the midweek series, the Tigers lost two of three in a weekend series with Kentucky.
· On Tuesday, LSU took down ULL, 8-6, in the annual Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic at Zephyr Field in Metairie, La.
· Friday's series opener between LSU and Kentucky went into extra innings, with UK knocking a two-run double in the top of the 12th inning to claim the 5-4 win.
· LSU bounced back against Kentucky in game two, rallying for five runs in the eighth inning of Saturday's game to claim the 7-3 win. The big inning was highlighted by a pair of home runs from Chris Chinea and Jared Foster.
· Kentucky claimed the final game of the series to hand LSU its first series loss of the 2015 season on Sunday. The game went to extras once again, with UK knocking a solo home run in the top of the 11th to take the 12-10 win.
· LSU is batting a league-leading .329 as a team, while also leading the conference in hits (349), doubles (65) and triples (17) and striking out a league-low 125 times. The Tigers have seven players batting above .300 with nine hitters contributing double-digit RBI totals.
· Alex Bregman leads the offensive attack for the Tigers. The 2014 National Freshman of the Year and Brooks Wallace Award winner leads LSU in doubles (10), home runs (7), stolen bases (14) and RBI (29) and has struck out just four times in 118 at-bats. His 73 total bases lead the SEC. National Player of the Year and Johnny Bench Award candidate Kade Scivicque is the team leader in batting average, contributing a team-leading .407 (37-91) batting average to rank second in the conference in that category.
· The pitching staff owns a 3.09 ERA (93 ER/271.0 IP) and is limiting opposing hitters to a .233 average. The Tigers staff has collected 254 strikeouts on the season compared to 108 total walks. Junior closer Jesse Stallings has made 15 appearances on the season and collected a league-high 11 saves to go along with his 1.65 ERA (3 ER/16.1 IP). Zac Person leads the league in appearances with 17 and has collected 17 strikeouts across 14 IP.
· The Tigers welcome back 20 lettermen, including 11 positional players with experience and eight pitchers, from last season's SEC Tournament Championship team that finished 46-16-1. LSU added 12 newcomers, including 11 freshmen and one junior college transfer to the 2015 squad.
· LSU claimed four preseason All-SEC nominees. The two first-teamers were shortstop Alex Bregman and outfielder Andrew Stevenson, while the second-team nominees included catcher Kade Scivicque and outfielder Mark Laird.
· The Tigers were selected to finish first in the Western Division and received one vote to win the conference in the Southeastern Conference preseason poll, as voted on by the league's coaches.
SERIES HISTORY
· Alabama and LSU will meet for the 359th, 360th and 361st times when the two teams collide this Thursday through Saturday in Hoover.
· The two teams split the most recent meetings, playing a doubleheader in Baton Rouge on May 10. LSU took the first game, 2-0, but Alabama bounced back in game two, claiming a 5-1 win to divide the day evenly.
· In game one, Spencer Turnbull and Aaron Nola battled in a pitcher's duel as both starters went the distance, but the two runs scored by the Tigers proved to be enough in the 2-0, win.
· Game two saw Tide starter Justin Kamplain toss a complete-game as the Tide would roll to a 5-1 win to split.
· With Mitch Gaspard at the helm, Alabama is 4-13 against LSU. The Tigers have been ranked in the top six or better in each of the last 10 meetings between the two teams.
· Alabama last won a series against LSU in 2011, when the Tide took the final two games of a three-game weekend series in Tuscaloosa. In game one, LSU claimed an 11-6 win, but UA bounced back to take games two and three in shutout fashion. Alabama would take the Saturday game, 4-0, before claiming the series-decider by a score of 9-0.
TOUGH STRETCH AHEAD FOR THE TIDE
· Alabama will have no easy road, facing off with numerous teams in Baseball America's weekly top-25 poll.
· By season's end, the Crimson Tide is scheduled to have faced four of the top five teams in this week's poll, including top-ranked Vanderbilt, No. 2 Texas A&M, third-ranked LSU and No. 4 Florida.
· According to D1Baseball.com, Alabama ranks 18th in RPI and has the third-toughest schedule in the NCAA.
· UA finished its series at then-No. 3 Houston from Feb. 20-22, going 1-2 against the Cougars.
· Alabama went to Starkville and took two of three from then-No. 15 Mississippi State to kick off SEC play with a winning record.
· The Crimson Tide then fell in two of three games against Texas A&M from March 20-22, but avoided the sweep thanks to a standout performance from Geoffrey Bramblett in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.
· Most recently, the Tide traveled to No. 4 Florida, taking one of three games against the Gators.
· With last weekend's three-game series at Florida, Alabama is wrapping up one of the toughest stretches in all of college baseball. Starting Thursday, Alabama will begin a three-game set with third-ranked LSU inside the Hoover Met to finally wrap up the month-long gauntlet.
COMING UP
Next up for the Tide is a Tuesday midweek contest at Samford. The Tide and Bulldogs will meet for the second time this season, with Alabama taking the 8-6 victory on March 17 inside the Hoover Met. The two teams have met 109 times in series history, with UA currently owning a 94-15 advantage over Samford.
-UA-
RTR,
Diamond Tide :biga:
April 1, 2015
TUSCALOOSA, AL - Alabama remains at home to welcome the third-ranked LSU Tigers to Hoover. The two teams are scheduled for a three-game series from Thursday until Saturday inside Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
The Tide and Tigers will begin the series on Thursday night with a 7:00 p.m. CT first pitch on SECN+. Friday's second game is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. CT start as well, with the series wrapping up at 2:00 p.m. CT on Saturday afternoon.
FOLLOW THE TIDE
Fans can watch/follow the three-game series via the outlets below:
Gametracker: RollTide.com
Listen: 99.1 FM (Tuscaloosa) / CTSN / TuneIn App
Web: SECN+
Twitter: @AlabamaBSB
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
THURSDAY: UA -- Taylor Guilbeau (Sr., LHP) vs. LSU -- Jared Poche' (So., LHP)
FRIDAY: UA -- Will Carter (Jr., RHP) vs. LSU -- Alex Lange (Fr., RHP)
SATURDAY: UA -- Geoffrey Bramblett (So., RHP) vs. LSU -- Jake Godfrey (Fr., RHP)
LEADING OFF
· Alabama and LSU will meet the 359th time in program history on Thursday evening when the two teams square off for the series opener. The Crimson Tide own the all-time series, 197-158-3, but the Tigers have won eight of the last 10 contests between the two. Last season, rain shortened the series between the two SEC West foes, forcing a doubleheader and canceling the final game of the series.
· LSU is coming off an 8-6 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday evening. Prior to the midweek series, the Tigers dropped two of three games to Kentucky. LSU fell in the first and third games of the weekend, claiming the middle matchup between the two SEC foes.
· Alabama will continue with its current weekend rotation, starting senior left-hander Taylor Guilbeau in Thursday's first game and tossing junior righty Will Carter on Friday evening. UA will finish off the three-game set tossing sophomore right-hander Geoffrey Bramblett against the Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
· LSU will feature a pair of freshmen and a sophomore against the Tide this weekend. The Tigers will start sophomore Jared Poche' on Thursday evening, and then will hand the ball to freshman Alex Lange on Friday evening. Rounding out the weekend for LSU is first-year man Jake Godfrey on Saturday afternoon.
· This weekend will feature numerous promotions. Thursday and Friday will feature postgame fireworks while Thursday will also be a "Dollar Dog Night" with $1 hot dogs. Friday's contest is "First Responders Night" with free admission to all police, fire and EMT workers. Saturday's finale will feature $1 youth tickets and live music before the game from country artist Bobby Cool, and then will wrap up with some activities for the kids including running the bases and getting autographs after the series finale.
SCOUTING ALABAMA
· The Crimson Tide comes into Thursday's game with LSU after earning a 7-2 win on Tuesday at UAB. Prior the midweek contest, Alabama took one of three games from fourth-ranked Florida in Gainesville.
· In the midweek game at UAB, Alabama collected a season-high tying 10 free passes on its way to a 7-2 win. The Tide put together a four-run fifth inning highlighted by two hits, three walks and two HBP.
· Alabama was forced to play a doubleheader at Florida last Friday after rain postponed Thursday's series opener. In the first game of the doubleheader, UA rallied for 10 runs over the final four frames to claim the 12-9, extra-innings win. The two teams were knotted up at 9-9 at the end of regulation and were forced to go into extras. In the top of the 10th, UA collected three runs and Ray Castillo shut down the Gators for his third win of the season.
· The second game of Friday's twinbill saw the Gators jump out to an early 5-0 lead by the end of the first inning. Alabama would bounce back with one run in the top of the second, but could score no more. Florida would go on to add three more runs by evening's end to take the 8-1 victory.
· In Saturday's rubber match, Florida struck first, putting up one run in the bottom of the fourth. The two teams would then trade scoring innings through the top of the sixth to set the Tide ahead 4-3. In the bottom of the seventh, UF would even it up with one run and would then add three in the bottom of the eighth to take the 7-4 win in the series finale.
· UA is led offensively by Casey Hughston and Mikey White, both team leaders in many statistical categories.
· Hughston ranks third in the conference in batting average (.392) and slugging percentage (.647), is tied for fourth in doubles (10), tied for fifth in total bases (66), ranks sixth in on-base percentage (.458) and is tied for seventh in RBI (27). The sophomore is also the team leader in average, hits, doubles, home runs, RBI and slugging percentage, while tying for the team lead in stolen bases at a perfect 10-for-10.
· Alabama is also receiving a strong offensive effort from White. The junior shortstop is tied for the league lead in triples (5), and also ranks sixth in slugging percentage (.622) and seventh in on-base percentage (.458).
· The Tide has collected 13 multi-hit efforts this season and is 10-3 when recording double-digit hit totals. Four of those nine double-digit hitting efforts have come in SEC play, with the Tide owning a 3-1 record in those games.
· UA kicked off the season with a record-setting weekend against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
· Twelve of the Crimson Tide's 40 hits were for extra bases, including 10 doubles and two triples. The Tide finished the weekend batting .360 as a team and accumulating 37 total runs, the most since Alabama scored 38 against the University of Illinois-Chicago on Feb. 26-27, 2010.
· The Alabama offense put together a 19-0 performance in Sunday's finale thanks to 15 hits, including five-RBI performances from Kyle Overstreet and Hughston. Hughston and Overstreet were the first pair of UA players to each record five RBI in the same game since Clay Jones and Brett Booth did it against UIC on Feb. 27, 2010.
· Alabama's starters limited UMES to just six total hits while striking out 19 batters across 19.0 IP for the weekend.
· Alabama returns 23 letterwinners from last season's team that reached the NCAA Tallahassee Regional. The 2015 Tide also features five positional returners, and three pitchers who made five or more starts last season.
SCOUTING LSU
· LSU comes to Hoover after claiming an 8-6 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday evening. Prior to the midweek series, the Tigers lost two of three in a weekend series with Kentucky.
· On Tuesday, LSU took down ULL, 8-6, in the annual Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic at Zephyr Field in Metairie, La.
· Friday's series opener between LSU and Kentucky went into extra innings, with UK knocking a two-run double in the top of the 12th inning to claim the 5-4 win.
· LSU bounced back against Kentucky in game two, rallying for five runs in the eighth inning of Saturday's game to claim the 7-3 win. The big inning was highlighted by a pair of home runs from Chris Chinea and Jared Foster.
· Kentucky claimed the final game of the series to hand LSU its first series loss of the 2015 season on Sunday. The game went to extras once again, with UK knocking a solo home run in the top of the 11th to take the 12-10 win.
· LSU is batting a league-leading .329 as a team, while also leading the conference in hits (349), doubles (65) and triples (17) and striking out a league-low 125 times. The Tigers have seven players batting above .300 with nine hitters contributing double-digit RBI totals.
· Alex Bregman leads the offensive attack for the Tigers. The 2014 National Freshman of the Year and Brooks Wallace Award winner leads LSU in doubles (10), home runs (7), stolen bases (14) and RBI (29) and has struck out just four times in 118 at-bats. His 73 total bases lead the SEC. National Player of the Year and Johnny Bench Award candidate Kade Scivicque is the team leader in batting average, contributing a team-leading .407 (37-91) batting average to rank second in the conference in that category.
· The pitching staff owns a 3.09 ERA (93 ER/271.0 IP) and is limiting opposing hitters to a .233 average. The Tigers staff has collected 254 strikeouts on the season compared to 108 total walks. Junior closer Jesse Stallings has made 15 appearances on the season and collected a league-high 11 saves to go along with his 1.65 ERA (3 ER/16.1 IP). Zac Person leads the league in appearances with 17 and has collected 17 strikeouts across 14 IP.
· The Tigers welcome back 20 lettermen, including 11 positional players with experience and eight pitchers, from last season's SEC Tournament Championship team that finished 46-16-1. LSU added 12 newcomers, including 11 freshmen and one junior college transfer to the 2015 squad.
· LSU claimed four preseason All-SEC nominees. The two first-teamers were shortstop Alex Bregman and outfielder Andrew Stevenson, while the second-team nominees included catcher Kade Scivicque and outfielder Mark Laird.
· The Tigers were selected to finish first in the Western Division and received one vote to win the conference in the Southeastern Conference preseason poll, as voted on by the league's coaches.
SERIES HISTORY
· Alabama and LSU will meet for the 359th, 360th and 361st times when the two teams collide this Thursday through Saturday in Hoover.
· The two teams split the most recent meetings, playing a doubleheader in Baton Rouge on May 10. LSU took the first game, 2-0, but Alabama bounced back in game two, claiming a 5-1 win to divide the day evenly.
· In game one, Spencer Turnbull and Aaron Nola battled in a pitcher's duel as both starters went the distance, but the two runs scored by the Tigers proved to be enough in the 2-0, win.
· Game two saw Tide starter Justin Kamplain toss a complete-game as the Tide would roll to a 5-1 win to split.
· With Mitch Gaspard at the helm, Alabama is 4-13 against LSU. The Tigers have been ranked in the top six or better in each of the last 10 meetings between the two teams.
· Alabama last won a series against LSU in 2011, when the Tide took the final two games of a three-game weekend series in Tuscaloosa. In game one, LSU claimed an 11-6 win, but UA bounced back to take games two and three in shutout fashion. Alabama would take the Saturday game, 4-0, before claiming the series-decider by a score of 9-0.
TOUGH STRETCH AHEAD FOR THE TIDE
· Alabama will have no easy road, facing off with numerous teams in Baseball America's weekly top-25 poll.
· By season's end, the Crimson Tide is scheduled to have faced four of the top five teams in this week's poll, including top-ranked Vanderbilt, No. 2 Texas A&M, third-ranked LSU and No. 4 Florida.
· According to D1Baseball.com, Alabama ranks 18th in RPI and has the third-toughest schedule in the NCAA.
· UA finished its series at then-No. 3 Houston from Feb. 20-22, going 1-2 against the Cougars.
· Alabama went to Starkville and took two of three from then-No. 15 Mississippi State to kick off SEC play with a winning record.
· The Crimson Tide then fell in two of three games against Texas A&M from March 20-22, but avoided the sweep thanks to a standout performance from Geoffrey Bramblett in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.
· Most recently, the Tide traveled to No. 4 Florida, taking one of three games against the Gators.
· With last weekend's three-game series at Florida, Alabama is wrapping up one of the toughest stretches in all of college baseball. Starting Thursday, Alabama will begin a three-game set with third-ranked LSU inside the Hoover Met to finally wrap up the month-long gauntlet.
COMING UP
Next up for the Tide is a Tuesday midweek contest at Samford. The Tide and Bulldogs will meet for the second time this season, with Alabama taking the 8-6 victory on March 17 inside the Hoover Met. The two teams have met 109 times in series history, with UA currently owning a 94-15 advantage over Samford.
-UA-
RTR,
Diamond Tide :biga:
