Alabama Drops Its First Game at Tuscaloosa Regional
6/4/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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TUSCALOOSA, AL-- No. 3 national seed Alabama, the top seed here this weekend (48-13) was upset by No. 4 regional seed Southeast Missouri State (37-18) 7-4 tonight at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The loss, which marks the first ever home NCAA tournament loss for Alabama, was the first postseason game that Alabama has lost at home since suffering a 2-1 setback to Vanderbilt in the SEC playoffs in 1973.
On the strength of strong pitching from starter Brandon Smith (12-2), who gave up four runs in five innings of work, and Tim Alvarez, who picked up his third save of the season with four innings of one-hit relief, Southeast Missouri State ran its record to 21-1 when scoring first. The victory also tied the Indians school record for wins in a season with 37.
Southeast Missouri jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning after Clemente Bonilla doubled to drive in Denver Stuckey and Brian Hopkins.
The Tide responded in the bottom of the first when Brent Boyd broke the school record for sacrifice flies (14) to drive in Travis Garner making the score 2-1.
Southeast Missouri State answered in the top of the second on Ryan Govek's two-run home run. The home run was Govek's first of the season and made the score 4-1.
However, Alabama bounced back in the bottom of the second plating three runs to tie the score at four. Senior Jeremy Brown broke the school record for career RBIs driving in all three runs with a bases loaded double. Brown now has 227 RBIs for his career.
The Indians came right back however, scoring two more runs in the fourth on the strength of back-to back doubles from Govek and Stuckey to make the score 6-4.
Eric Hoffman closed out the scoring at 7-4 in the sixth inning with a solo home run over the right field wall.
Southeast Missouri State's pitching took over from there, holding Alabama to just one base runner over the final three innings of the game.
Shane Sanders took the loss for Alabama, dropping his record to 8-4, after allowing seven runs in five innings of work.
Alabama will be in action again Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. against arch-rival Auburn in an elimination game. The Tide is 3-0 against Auburn this season. Southeast Missouri State will be in action Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. against FAU. The winner of that game will move into Sunday's regional championship game. Live stats for all regional games can be seen at www.rolltide.com. Tickets are available at the stadium for ten dollars for upper reserved and nine dollars for reserved bleacher seats.
