The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs will face off for the 110th time in series history and second time this season
April 6, 2015
TUSCALOOSA, AL - Alabama takes to the road for a midweek game with Samford in Birmingham at Joe Lee Griffin Stadium. The Tide and Bulldogs are scheduled for a 6 p.m. start. The two teams will meet for the second time this season, with the first game ending in Alabama's favor, 8-6, on March 17.
FOLLOW THE TIDE
Fans can watch/follow the midweek game via the below outlets:
Gametracker: RollTide.com
Listen: 99.1 FM (Tuscaloosa) & 100.5 FM (Birmingham)
Twitter: @AlabamaBSB
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
UA -- Jake Walters (Fr., RHP) vs. SAM -- Eric Wright (R-Sr., LHP)
LEADING OFF
· Alabama and Samford will meet for the 110th time in the history of a series that dates back to 1894. UA owns the all-time series with the Bulldogs, 94-15. The Tide have claimed the last seven contests between the two teams, including the most recent meeting on March 17 inside the Hoover Met.
· Samford is coming off a three-game series where the Bulldogs took two of three from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Prior to the trio of games with the Spartans, SU split its midweek games taking down Alabama A&M, 8-4, on Wednesday and falling to Auburn, 9-4, on Tuesday evening.
· Alabama will send freshman right-hander Jake Walters to the mound on Tuesday evening. Walters is making his fourth start of the season and his second against Samford. In his first outing against the Bulldogs, Walters tossed a season-high 5.0 innings, striking out nine batters which was a season-high for an Alabama starter up to that point.
· Samford sends redshirt senior Eric Wright to the mound on Tuesday. Wright has made nine appearances, including three starts, and owns a 5.68 ERA (12 ER/19.0 IP).
· The Tide own an 11-7 record in non-conference action this season. Alabama is 2-1 against in-state foes, with the lone loss coming at South Alabama on March 24 by a score of 3-0. The shutout loss to the Jaguars was the Crimson Tide's lone shutout this season.
· Alabama owns a 3-1 record against "Bulldogs" this season. The Tide took two of three from then-No. 15 Mississippi State from March 14-15 in Starkville and claimed another victory against Samford. Alabama took game one of the series-opening doubleheader at State, 10-5, before falling game two, 4-1. The Tide bounced back for an 8-4 win on Sunday to take the weekend series in Starkville. After this Tuesday's midweek contest with Samford, Alabama is scheduled for five more games with "Bulldogs" this season, including a three-game series with Georgia this upcoming weekend and then a doubleheader vs. Alabama A&M on May 5. The twinbill with A&M was rescheduled after rain cancelled the initial meeting on March 10.
SCOUTING ALABAMA
· The Crimson Tide comes into Tuesday's contest with Samford after going 1-3 overall for the week. Alabama kicked off the seven day stretch with a Tuesday win at UAB. The Tide was then swept by No. 3 LSU at home.
· Alabama fell in the program's longest-recorded game in history, losing 8-5 in 16 innings of baseball that spanned 5:25 on Thursday evening. The starting pitchers battled and nearly tossed complete games, but the night was eventually decided after the two teams used a combined 14 pitchers.
· The Tide fell in Friday's second game of the series, 6-2. LSU got out to an early 1-0 lead and then added four more before Alabama rallied for two runs in the seventh. The surge would fall short as the Tigers would put up one more in the eighth for the eventual win.
· Saturday's game went into extra innings, with LSU putting up a two-spot in the 13th to move ahead for the eventual 6-4 win. Alabama jumped out to an early 4-2 lead after one inning of play, but the Tigers rallied for two in the fifth before the teams entered extras again.
· 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 recorded multiple hits in each game of the series with LSU.
· For the weekend, UA stranded 38 runners and recorded double-digit left-on-base totals in all three games.
· 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 (.387), is tied for fourth in total bases (72) and is tied for seventh in hits (46). The sophomore is also the team leader in average, hits, home runs and RBI (27).
· Alabama is also receiving a strong offensive effort from White. The junior shortstop is tied for the league lead in triples (5), while tying for fourth in doubles (11) and total bases (72), ranking fifth in slugging percentage (.622) and tying for sixth in runs scored (30). He leads the Tide with 16 multi-hit efforts this season.
· Ray Castillo highlights the Crimson Tide bullpen, making 14 relief appearances across a team-high 31.1 innings out of the pen. He leads relievers in wins with a perfect 3-0 record and has maintained a 2.01 ERA (7 ER/31.1 IP).
· The Tide has collected 16 multi-hit efforts this season and is 10-6 when recording double-digit hit totals. Seven of those 16 double-digit hitting efforts have come in SEC play, with the Tide owning a 3-4 record in those games.
· 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 SAMFORD
· Samford is coming off a three-game series against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where the Bulldogs took two of three from the Spartans. Prior to the trio of games with UNCG, Samford split its midweek games, taking down Alabama A&M on Wednesday and falling to Auburn on Tuesday.
· Friday featured a doubleheader for the Bulldogs as they took down UNCG, 7-4, in the first game. Samford traded runs with the Spartans in the third, claiming a 4-2 lead through three innings. The Bulldogs would add one run apiece in the fifth, sixth and seventh, and would stave off a Spartan rally in the ninth.
· Greensboro got out to an early lead, scoring two in the first and then one in the second and third innings. The Spartans would add one more in the eighth to go on to the 5-0 win over the Bulldogs.
· On Saturday, Samford put up 12 runs through the first five innings, and then added one in the sixth and eighth. A six-run seventh by UNCG put pressure on the Bulldogs, but the Samford pen limited the damage and helped SU go on to a 14-7 victory in the series finale.
· Samford took an early, 2-1 lead after three innings, but Auburn would add two in the top of the fourth to take the lead and would not relinquish the advantage for the rest of the game, winning 9-4 on Tuesday.
· The Bulldogs would score six runs through the first three innings against Alabama A&M on their way to an 8-4 victory, limiting the comeback effort to just three runs in the eighth as A&M rallied.
· Samford is batting .282 as a team and feature four players batting above .300. The Bulldogs also have five players with 20 or more RBI on the year.
· Sophomore Hunter Swilling leads the Bulldogs in RBI with 33, stolen bases (5), and slugging at .598. Swilling has also contributed a team-leading 40 hits and seven home runs, while ranking second in runs (27). Sophomore Heath Quinn is the team leader in runs with 28 and is just one hit behind Swilling for the team lead. Quinn has drawn 14 walks and stolen four bases to rank second on the team in both categories.
· The pitching staff owns a 5.66 ERA (165 ER/262.1 IP) and is allowing a .287 average against. Samford features four relievers who have made double-digit relief appearances this season, including Mark Donham with a team-leading 14 appearances. Donham also leads the Bulldogs in wins out of the bullpen with three and has recorded one save on the season. Closer Andres Gracia ranks third on the team in appearances with 12 and owns a 3.07 ERA (5 ER/14.2 IP) on his way to recording six saves thus far.
· SU finished 2014 with a 35-25 overall record and a 15-12 conference mark to tie for third. The Bulldogs return 19 letterwinners from a season ago while losing 15.
· Samford had five preseason All-SoCon selections, including four first-team choices in Gracia, Frankie Navarrette, Quinn and Jared Watson all earning first-team nods. The lone second-teamer was Alex Ledford.
· The Bulldogs were selected to finish second in SoCon Preseason Coaches Poll, as selected by the league's coaches, and were picked to finish third in the conference by the media.
SERIES HISTORY
· Alabama and Samford will meet for the 110th time in series history on Tuesday. The series between the in-state schools dates back to 1894 when Samford was still known as Howard College.
· The Crimson Tide owns the all-time series with the Bulldogs, 94-15, including a 2-0 sweep of SU last season. The Tide most recently took down the Bulldogs, 8-6, in a midweek game at The Met on March 17.
· Alabama has claimed victories in each of the last seven meetings between the two teams.
· The first meeting between the two teams came at the beginning of 1894, Alabama's third year in existence as a baseball program. The Crimson Tide claimed a victory in that game by a score of 7-2.
· Last season, Alabama won the first meeting against the Bulldogs on March 11 by a tally of 12-1. The second contest came at Samford on April 30, with UA coming out on top 9-5 in that game.
RELENTLESS MONTH OF THE SEASON FINALLY ENDS FOR THE TIDE
· Alabama will end this season having faced 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 10 teams in this week's poll, including top-ranked Vanderbilt, No. 2 Texas A&M, third-ranked LSU and No. 10 Florida.
· According to D1Baseball.com, Alabama has the TOUGHEST schedule in NCAA baseball and ranks 38th in RPI.
· 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.
· Two weeks ago, the Tide traveled to No. 4 Florida, taking one of three games against the Gators. Alabama claimed the first game of the series by a score of 12-10 in 10 innings. The Gators bounced back to take the final two games of the three-game set to claim the series.
· Most recently, Alabama fell in all three contests against No. 3 LSU. The two teams played a combined 38.0 innings of baseball, but the Tigers would come out victorious in all three games.
· With last weekend's three-game series vs. LSU, Alabama wrapped up one of the toughest stretches in all of college baseball. Alabama's trio of games against third-ranked LSU finally wrapped up the month-long gauntlet.
ALABAMA'S RECORD-SETTING MARATHON SERIES WITH LSU
· The Crimson Tide welcomed the third-ranked LSU Tigers to Hoover this past weekend for what would end up being a record-setting trio of games.
· By weekend's end, the Crimson Tide and Tigers had played 38.0 innings of baseball, the most frames ever played across a three-game series in Alabama history. The previous high was 36.0 combined innings across a three-game set at Mississippi State from April 11-12, 1969.
· The two teams played 12 hours and 36 minutes of baseball spanning the three-day stretch, including two extra innings games.
· Thursday's series-opener lasted 5 hours and 25 minutes across 16 innings of play. The 5:25 was the longest recorded time for a Crimson Tide baseball game in program history. The previous long game time was 4:55 vs. LSU on April 20, 2013.
· Following Thursday's contest, Alabama's three-longest games in recorded history have all come against LSU, with the third-longest game ever coming on April 3, 2005 when the Tide and Tigers played 4 hours and 30 minutes of baseball.
· Alabama recorded 48 putouts on Thursday to tie the single-game high in program history. The first time UA recorded 48 putouts was the April 20, 2013 contest vs. LSU.
· Saturday's contest went 4 hours and 6 minutes, the second-longest game of the season for Alabama. The game went into extras again, lasting 13 total innings.
· The Crimson Tide and Tigers have now played 14 extra-innings contests in the history of the two teams, with five of those games coming during Mitch Gaspard's tenure as head coach.
COMING UP
Next up for the Crimson Tide is a three-game set with the Georgia Bulldogs from April 10-12. Friday's first game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start with Saturday's game set to start at 3 p.m. Sunday's series finale with UGA will feature a 1 p.m. first pitch. All three contests will take place inside Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and will air on SECN+. The Crimson Tide owns the all-time series, 68-67-2, and swept Georgia in the last meeting between the two from March 22-24, 2013, in Athens.
-UA-
RTR,
Diamond Tide :biga:
April 6, 2015
TUSCALOOSA, AL - Alabama takes to the road for a midweek game with Samford in Birmingham at Joe Lee Griffin Stadium. The Tide and Bulldogs are scheduled for a 6 p.m. start. The two teams will meet for the second time this season, with the first game ending in Alabama's favor, 8-6, on March 17.
FOLLOW THE TIDE
Fans can watch/follow the midweek game via the below outlets:
Gametracker: RollTide.com
Listen: 99.1 FM (Tuscaloosa) & 100.5 FM (Birmingham)
Twitter: @AlabamaBSB
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
UA -- Jake Walters (Fr., RHP) vs. SAM -- Eric Wright (R-Sr., LHP)
LEADING OFF
· Alabama and Samford will meet for the 110th time in the history of a series that dates back to 1894. UA owns the all-time series with the Bulldogs, 94-15. The Tide have claimed the last seven contests between the two teams, including the most recent meeting on March 17 inside the Hoover Met.
· Samford is coming off a three-game series where the Bulldogs took two of three from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Prior to the trio of games with the Spartans, SU split its midweek games taking down Alabama A&M, 8-4, on Wednesday and falling to Auburn, 9-4, on Tuesday evening.
· Alabama will send freshman right-hander Jake Walters to the mound on Tuesday evening. Walters is making his fourth start of the season and his second against Samford. In his first outing against the Bulldogs, Walters tossed a season-high 5.0 innings, striking out nine batters which was a season-high for an Alabama starter up to that point.
· Samford sends redshirt senior Eric Wright to the mound on Tuesday. Wright has made nine appearances, including three starts, and owns a 5.68 ERA (12 ER/19.0 IP).
· The Tide own an 11-7 record in non-conference action this season. Alabama is 2-1 against in-state foes, with the lone loss coming at South Alabama on March 24 by a score of 3-0. The shutout loss to the Jaguars was the Crimson Tide's lone shutout this season.
· Alabama owns a 3-1 record against "Bulldogs" this season. The Tide took two of three from then-No. 15 Mississippi State from March 14-15 in Starkville and claimed another victory against Samford. Alabama took game one of the series-opening doubleheader at State, 10-5, before falling game two, 4-1. The Tide bounced back for an 8-4 win on Sunday to take the weekend series in Starkville. After this Tuesday's midweek contest with Samford, Alabama is scheduled for five more games with "Bulldogs" this season, including a three-game series with Georgia this upcoming weekend and then a doubleheader vs. Alabama A&M on May 5. The twinbill with A&M was rescheduled after rain cancelled the initial meeting on March 10.
SCOUTING ALABAMA
· The Crimson Tide comes into Tuesday's contest with Samford after going 1-3 overall for the week. Alabama kicked off the seven day stretch with a Tuesday win at UAB. The Tide was then swept by No. 3 LSU at home.
· Alabama fell in the program's longest-recorded game in history, losing 8-5 in 16 innings of baseball that spanned 5:25 on Thursday evening. The starting pitchers battled and nearly tossed complete games, but the night was eventually decided after the two teams used a combined 14 pitchers.
· The Tide fell in Friday's second game of the series, 6-2. LSU got out to an early 1-0 lead and then added four more before Alabama rallied for two runs in the seventh. The surge would fall short as the Tigers would put up one more in the eighth for the eventual win.
· Saturday's game went into extra innings, with LSU putting up a two-spot in the 13th to move ahead for the eventual 6-4 win. Alabama jumped out to an early 4-2 lead after one inning of play, but the Tigers rallied for two in the fifth before the teams entered extras again.
· 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 recorded multiple hits in each game of the series with LSU.
· For the weekend, UA stranded 38 runners and recorded double-digit left-on-base totals in all three games.
· 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 (.387), is tied for fourth in total bases (72) and is tied for seventh in hits (46). The sophomore is also the team leader in average, hits, home runs and RBI (27).
· Alabama is also receiving a strong offensive effort from White. The junior shortstop is tied for the league lead in triples (5), while tying for fourth in doubles (11) and total bases (72), ranking fifth in slugging percentage (.622) and tying for sixth in runs scored (30). He leads the Tide with 16 multi-hit efforts this season.
· Ray Castillo highlights the Crimson Tide bullpen, making 14 relief appearances across a team-high 31.1 innings out of the pen. He leads relievers in wins with a perfect 3-0 record and has maintained a 2.01 ERA (7 ER/31.1 IP).
· The Tide has collected 16 multi-hit efforts this season and is 10-6 when recording double-digit hit totals. Seven of those 16 double-digit hitting efforts have come in SEC play, with the Tide owning a 3-4 record in those games.
· 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 SAMFORD
· Samford is coming off a three-game series against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where the Bulldogs took two of three from the Spartans. Prior to the trio of games with UNCG, Samford split its midweek games, taking down Alabama A&M on Wednesday and falling to Auburn on Tuesday.
· Friday featured a doubleheader for the Bulldogs as they took down UNCG, 7-4, in the first game. Samford traded runs with the Spartans in the third, claiming a 4-2 lead through three innings. The Bulldogs would add one run apiece in the fifth, sixth and seventh, and would stave off a Spartan rally in the ninth.
· Greensboro got out to an early lead, scoring two in the first and then one in the second and third innings. The Spartans would add one more in the eighth to go on to the 5-0 win over the Bulldogs.
· On Saturday, Samford put up 12 runs through the first five innings, and then added one in the sixth and eighth. A six-run seventh by UNCG put pressure on the Bulldogs, but the Samford pen limited the damage and helped SU go on to a 14-7 victory in the series finale.
· Samford took an early, 2-1 lead after three innings, but Auburn would add two in the top of the fourth to take the lead and would not relinquish the advantage for the rest of the game, winning 9-4 on Tuesday.
· The Bulldogs would score six runs through the first three innings against Alabama A&M on their way to an 8-4 victory, limiting the comeback effort to just three runs in the eighth as A&M rallied.
· Samford is batting .282 as a team and feature four players batting above .300. The Bulldogs also have five players with 20 or more RBI on the year.
· Sophomore Hunter Swilling leads the Bulldogs in RBI with 33, stolen bases (5), and slugging at .598. Swilling has also contributed a team-leading 40 hits and seven home runs, while ranking second in runs (27). Sophomore Heath Quinn is the team leader in runs with 28 and is just one hit behind Swilling for the team lead. Quinn has drawn 14 walks and stolen four bases to rank second on the team in both categories.
· The pitching staff owns a 5.66 ERA (165 ER/262.1 IP) and is allowing a .287 average against. Samford features four relievers who have made double-digit relief appearances this season, including Mark Donham with a team-leading 14 appearances. Donham also leads the Bulldogs in wins out of the bullpen with three and has recorded one save on the season. Closer Andres Gracia ranks third on the team in appearances with 12 and owns a 3.07 ERA (5 ER/14.2 IP) on his way to recording six saves thus far.
· SU finished 2014 with a 35-25 overall record and a 15-12 conference mark to tie for third. The Bulldogs return 19 letterwinners from a season ago while losing 15.
· Samford had five preseason All-SoCon selections, including four first-team choices in Gracia, Frankie Navarrette, Quinn and Jared Watson all earning first-team nods. The lone second-teamer was Alex Ledford.
· The Bulldogs were selected to finish second in SoCon Preseason Coaches Poll, as selected by the league's coaches, and were picked to finish third in the conference by the media.
SERIES HISTORY
· Alabama and Samford will meet for the 110th time in series history on Tuesday. The series between the in-state schools dates back to 1894 when Samford was still known as Howard College.
· The Crimson Tide owns the all-time series with the Bulldogs, 94-15, including a 2-0 sweep of SU last season. The Tide most recently took down the Bulldogs, 8-6, in a midweek game at The Met on March 17.
· Alabama has claimed victories in each of the last seven meetings between the two teams.
· The first meeting between the two teams came at the beginning of 1894, Alabama's third year in existence as a baseball program. The Crimson Tide claimed a victory in that game by a score of 7-2.
· Last season, Alabama won the first meeting against the Bulldogs on March 11 by a tally of 12-1. The second contest came at Samford on April 30, with UA coming out on top 9-5 in that game.
RELENTLESS MONTH OF THE SEASON FINALLY ENDS FOR THE TIDE
· Alabama will end this season having faced 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 10 teams in this week's poll, including top-ranked Vanderbilt, No. 2 Texas A&M, third-ranked LSU and No. 10 Florida.
· According to D1Baseball.com, Alabama has the TOUGHEST schedule in NCAA baseball and ranks 38th in RPI.
· 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.
· Two weeks ago, the Tide traveled to No. 4 Florida, taking one of three games against the Gators. Alabama claimed the first game of the series by a score of 12-10 in 10 innings. The Gators bounced back to take the final two games of the three-game set to claim the series.
· Most recently, Alabama fell in all three contests against No. 3 LSU. The two teams played a combined 38.0 innings of baseball, but the Tigers would come out victorious in all three games.
· With last weekend's three-game series vs. LSU, Alabama wrapped up one of the toughest stretches in all of college baseball. Alabama's trio of games against third-ranked LSU finally wrapped up the month-long gauntlet.
ALABAMA'S RECORD-SETTING MARATHON SERIES WITH LSU
· The Crimson Tide welcomed the third-ranked LSU Tigers to Hoover this past weekend for what would end up being a record-setting trio of games.
· By weekend's end, the Crimson Tide and Tigers had played 38.0 innings of baseball, the most frames ever played across a three-game series in Alabama history. The previous high was 36.0 combined innings across a three-game set at Mississippi State from April 11-12, 1969.
· The two teams played 12 hours and 36 minutes of baseball spanning the three-day stretch, including two extra innings games.
· Thursday's series-opener lasted 5 hours and 25 minutes across 16 innings of play. The 5:25 was the longest recorded time for a Crimson Tide baseball game in program history. The previous long game time was 4:55 vs. LSU on April 20, 2013.
· Following Thursday's contest, Alabama's three-longest games in recorded history have all come against LSU, with the third-longest game ever coming on April 3, 2005 when the Tide and Tigers played 4 hours and 30 minutes of baseball.
· Alabama recorded 48 putouts on Thursday to tie the single-game high in program history. The first time UA recorded 48 putouts was the April 20, 2013 contest vs. LSU.
· Saturday's contest went 4 hours and 6 minutes, the second-longest game of the season for Alabama. The game went into extras again, lasting 13 total innings.
· The Crimson Tide and Tigers have now played 14 extra-innings contests in the history of the two teams, with five of those games coming during Mitch Gaspard's tenure as head coach.
COMING UP
Next up for the Crimson Tide is a three-game set with the Georgia Bulldogs from April 10-12. Friday's first game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start with Saturday's game set to start at 3 p.m. Sunday's series finale with UGA will feature a 1 p.m. first pitch. All three contests will take place inside Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and will air on SECN+. The Crimson Tide owns the all-time series, 68-67-2, and swept Georgia in the last meeting between the two from March 22-24, 2013, in Athens.
-UA-
RTR,
Diamond Tide :biga:
