Alabama Baseball Team to Scrimmage Saturday and Sunday
9/20/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama baseball team will hold its first public scrimmage of the 2002 fall season this weekend at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
The Crimson Tide will scrimmage on Saturday at 3 p.m., three hours prior to the kickoff of the Alabama-Southern Miss football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Alabama-Southern Miss game kicks off at 6 p.m. and will be televised by espn2.
The baseball team will scrimmage again on Sunday, Sept. 22, beginning at 3:30 p.m. at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. All scrimmages are free and open to the general public.
Alabama Notebook:
*The NCAA released the final 2002 RPI rankings in the latest issue of Baseball America and Alabama was 11th in the final RPI among Division I teams...The Crimson Tide was 10-10 last year against the Top 25 RPI teams...Against Top 50 RPI teams, Alabama was 21-12 (.636).
*Scott McClanahan (1999-2002), who started all 65 games for Alabama this past season, helped the Crimson Tide to its fifth SEC Tournament Championship in the last eight years as UA beat South Carolina 6-2 in the title game. McClanahan, drafted in the 11th round by the NY Yankees, then led the Staten Island Yankees to the 2002 New York-Penn League Championship after posting a pair of sweeps in the best-of-three playoffs. Staten Island opened with a sweep of Williamsport and then swept Oneonta in the finals
*Andy Phillips (1996-99) hit 28 HRs and drove in 87 runs at Double-A Norwich (Conn.) and Triple-A Columbus (Ohio) this past season. Phillips played in the Double-A All-Star Game in July before being promoted to Triple A. Despite being passed over by the Yankees for a late-season call up in September, Phillips is still on the the organization’s top prospects. Phillips was selected to play in the prospect-filled Arizona Fall League with the Maryvale (Ariz.) Saguaros. The AFL begins Oct. 1 and continues through Nov. 23 with the playoffs.
*Former Alabama slugger Joe Vitiello (1989-91) was named to Baseball America’s International League (AAA) All-Star team, after batting .349 with 16 HRs and 82 RBI at Triple-A Ottawa this season.
*Dustan Mohr (1995-97), starting right fielder for the Minnesota Twins, helped the Twins clinch the American League Central Division championship last week. By helping the Twins win the AL Central, Mohr puts a former Alabama player in the playoffs for the third straight year. Frank Menechino (1992-94) played in the AL Divisional Series with the Oakland Athletics each of the last two years. Alabama has not had an alum in a league championship series since Randy Hunt led the St. Louis Cardinals to the NLCS in 1985.
