Alabama Baseball Notebook: May 17, 2004
5/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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SEC Record: 10-17 (.370), t10th overall; t5th west
ALABAMA PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINATION
3B EVAN BUSH (So., 6-1, 207, Rainbow City)
*3 G, .500 (6-for-12), HR, 5 RBI, 3 2Bs at UK
*Had the game-winning RBI in both wins at UK as Alabama snapped an 11 series SEC losing streak and 11 series SEC road losing streak this weekend
*Tied career high with three hits, including solo home run in in first inning in the Tide's 6-2 win in series opener. Also added run-scoring double in the fifth inning, driving in what proved to be the winning run in a 6-2 win
*Added three more hits in 9-8, 12-inning loss in game two. Also posted career-high six at-bats
*In series finale, Bush went 0-for-2, but started and ended the Tide's six-run, seventh inning rally that led to a 12-11 comeback win. Bush led off the inning with a walk and scored the first run, then capped the inning when his sacrifice fly scored David Ferazza with what proved to the winning run
*In fact, Bush has the game-winning RBI in each of the Crimson Tide's last three SEC wins this season
*The sac fly was his eighth of the season, tying the UA single-season record held by Clint Thompson in 1987
*Bush had his career-high 12-game hitting streak snapped in the series finale, which matches the longest hitting streak by a Bama player this year
*During the streak, Bush batted .442 (19-for-43), with eight runs scored, six doubles, one home run and seven RBI
*Since Mar. 26, Bush has hit safely in 20 of his last 25 games for Alabama and is now the team's third-leading hitter
*For the season, Bush is batting .321 (53-for-165) with seven home runs and 30 RBI. He leads Alabama in home runs, sac flies and game-winning RBI (7) this season
ALABAMA PITCHER OF THE WEEK NOMINATION
LHP WADE LeBLANC (Fr., 6-3, 180, Lake Charles, La.)
*9 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, CG at UK (May 14)
*The freshman continued his incredible rookie season at Kentucky this past weekend, tossing his NCAA and SEC leading eighth complete game of the year
*He notched his fourth straight CG in the win over Kentucky. The eight CGs tie Gene Lary (1955) for the second-most in school history. Frank Roland (1956) holds the UA record with 10 CGs in a single-season.
*With his eighth win of the season, LeBlanc has tied B.J. Green (1998), Scott Murphy (1999) and Taylor Tankersley (2002) for most wins in a season by a freshman
*LeBlanc also holds UA single-season freshmen records for innings pitched (106.2) and strikeouts (91)
*In his last four starts, LeBlanc has allowed three earned runs (0.77 ERA) in 35 innings.
*He also had a 13 1/3 inning scoreless streak snapped in the fourth inning in the win over UK. Earlier this season, he posted 19 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings for the Tide.
*For the season, LeBlanc is 8-4 with a 1.60 ERA in 14 starts this season. He has eight complete games and three complete game shutouts and has to be a serious candidate for National and SEC "Freshman of the Year" honors.
ALABAMA BASEBALL NOTEBOOK
Alabama (29-22, 10-17 SEC) enters the final week of the 2004 regular season still in contention for one of the eight berths in the 2004 SEC Baseball Tournament played at the Hoover Met ... Alabama, Auburn, Miss. State, Vanderbilt and Tennessee will battle for the final two post-season spots in the tourney during the final weekend ... Alabama will host Miss. State in a three-game SEC series this weekend at the Joe ... Alabama and Auburn are the only two teams in the SEC not to win a home series this year ... Alabama snapped two lengthy series losing streaks this past weekend at Kentucky as the Tide won its first SEC series of the season ... UA had lost 11 straight SEC series before the series-clinching win on Sunday against the Bat Cats ... Alabama's last SEC series win came against No. 15 Arkansas (April 25-27) last year ... The Crimson Tide also won its first SEC road series since the 2002 season this past weekend, snapping a streak of 11 straight series losses ... UA's last road series win was also at Kentucky (April 12-14) more than two years ago ... Another streak that fell by the wayside on Sunday was the Crimson Tide's inability to win a one-run game ... Bama's 12-11 series-clinching win at UK snapped a four-game losing streak in one-run games, dating back to a 5-4 win over UAB at the Hoover Met on April 14 ... Alabama also snapped a six-game SEC losing streak in one-run games on Sunday, winning for the first time since beating No. 5 Ole Miss 2-1 on Mar. 27 ... Alabama is 5-11 (.313) in one-run games this season, including a 2-7 (.222) mark in SEC games this year ... The Crimson Tide batted .331 (40-for-121) at Kentucky, with 17 extra base hits, including four home runs and 26 RBI ... UA had 12 doubles in the three-game series ... Bama outscored the Cats 10-0 in seventh, eighth and ninth innings in the series ... The .331 average is the highest this season in an SEC series and second highest average (.384 vs. Cincinnati) overall for Alabama ... The UA pitching staff had its share of problems at Kentucky, posting a 6.44 ERA (29.1 IP, 21 ER) in the series ... The 6.44 ERA is the highest in a series this year by Alabama ... Bama allowed 20 runs (19 ER) in its last two games and has seen its earned run average rise to 3.15 ERA this season, the highest since a 3.48 ERA on Feb. 20th ... The Crimson Tide's ERA has been higher than 3.00 only six times in 52 games, including the last two games ...UA head coach Jim Wells has compiled a 438-199 (.686) record in 10 seasons with the Crimson Tide ... Overall, Wells is 630-280 (.685) in 15 seasons at Northwestern State and Alabama ... With the series win at Kentucky, Wells now has 173 career SEC wins, moving him past former Alabama coach Dr. Barry Shollenberger (171) into second place on the school's all-time conference victories list ... Coach Tilden "Happy" Campbell is the all-time leader with 265 career SEC wins ... Alabama has won three straight SEC series opener following its 6-2 win over Kentucky on May 14 ... The winning streak in series openers includes wins over No. 6 LSU, No. 10 Florida and UK ... Bama is now 4-5 (.444) in SEC openers this season ... Alabama also improved to 3-5 (.375) in Friday SEC games ... The Crimson Tide is 5-4 (.556) in SEC Saturday games this season ... In fact, five of the 10 wins have come on Saturday ... Dating back to last year, seven of UA's last 11 SEC wins have come on Saturday ... However, Alabama has lost its last two Saturday SEC games, including the 9-8 setback at UK ... The Crimson Tide is 2-8 (.200) in SEC Sunday games this season ... The 12-11 win over UK on May 16 snapped a four-game losing streak on the final day of the weekend ... Despite it's 2-8 (.200) Sunday SEC record, Alabama has scored the same number (54-54) of runs as the opposition this season ... Alabama had its eight-game winning streak at Cliff Hagan Stadium snapped with a 9-8 loss in 12 innings on May 15 ... Alabama is 0-3 in extra inning games this season and has lost four straight extra inning games, dating back to a 10-6, 13-inning win at South Carolina on Mar. 29, 2002 ... UA's 12-11 win in the series finale at Kentucky not only gave the Crimson Tide its first SEC series win of the season, but also extended its winning streak to 21 straight games when scoring 10 or more runs, including a 12-0 record this season ... Dating back to the 2000 season, Alabama is 67-1 (.985) in its last 68 games when scoring 10 or more runs ... Alabama total of 12 players have combined to miss 214 games this season with injuries ... UA's second-leading hitter, Rocky Scelfo (.322, HR, 27 RBI) has missed the last eight games with a knee injury that may require surgery ... Freshman LHP Wade LeBlanc leads the SEC and NCAA with eight complete games this season ... He notched his fourth straight CG in Friday night's win over Kentucky (14 G, 8-4, 1.60 ERA, 106.2 IP, 91 K) ...The eight CGs tie Gene Lary (1955) for the second-most in school history ... Frank Roland (1956) holds the UA record with 10 CGs in a single-season ... LeBlanc also holds the UA single-season freshmen records for innings pitched (106.2), strikeouts (91) and complete games (8) ... His eight wins tie the single-season rookie record held by current assistant coach B.J. Green (1998), Scott Murphy (1999) and teammate Taylor Tankersley (2002) ... In his last four starts, LeBlanc has allowed three earned runs (0.77 ERA) in 35 innings ... LeBlanc had a 13 1/3 inning scoreless streak snapped in the fourth inning on May 14 ... . Earlier this season, he posted 19 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings for the Tide ... The Alabama pitching staff has six shutouts this season, which ties the 1991 team for the third-most in school history ... Only the 1974 (11) and 1967 (7) teams have more shutouts ... Alabama is 8-14 (.364) against ranked teams this season ... Bama has a 10-16 (.385) record against teams that have been ranked at some point during the season ... Alabama finished with a 9-11 (.450) road record this season the same identical record as last year ... Sophomore third baseman Evan Bush (.321, 7 HR, 30 RBI) had his 12-game hitting streak snapped on May 16th ... During the streak, Bush batted .442 (19-for-43), with eight runs scored, six doubles, one home run and seven RBI ... Since Mar. 26, Bush has hit safely in 20 of his last 25 games for Alabama and is now the team's third-leading hitter ... He had the game-winning RBI in both wins at UK as Alabama snapped an 11 series SEC losing streak and 11 series SEC road losing streak this weekend ... In fact, Bush has the game-winning RBI in each of the Crimson Tide's last three SEC wins this season ... Bush tied the UA single-season record with eight sacrifice flies in the win at UK ... He shares the record with former catcher Clint Thompson (1987) ... Junior second baseman/DH Allen Rice (.355, HR, 28 RBI) enters the final week of the regular-season riding a six-game hitting streak ... During the streak, he is batting .444 (12-for-27) with two doubles, two triples, three RBI and five runs scored ... He has four multi hit games in his last six games for the Tide ... Freshman right fielder Michael McCallister (.272, 2 HR, 17 RBI) was the second-leading hitter at Kentucky, with a .417 (5-for-12) average with one home run and four RBI ... The Green Cove Springs, Fla., native has hit safely in a career-best five straight games for Alabama ... During the streak, he is batting .389 (7-for-18) with one home run and four RBI ... Since April 16, he has hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games and is batting .346 (17-for-49) ... McCallister hit just his second home run of the season in the series finale, his first home run since the 2004 SEC opener at Georgia (Mar. 19) ... Junior LF Gabe Scott (.297, 4 HR, 12 RBI) hit .400 (4-for-10) in the UK series with a pair of RBI ... Scott has hit safely in four straight games (.385) and 12 of his last 13 games (.326) since April 23 ... Junior 2B Mark Haske is in the midst of an 0-for-16 slump over his last three games ... Sophomore catcher Charlie Lyons drilled a two-run home run in game two of the Kentucky series, his first home run of the season ... Lyons home run was just the second of his career and first in 53 games and 157 at-bats, dating back to Mar. 2, 2003 against Rhode Island ... Junior LHP Taylor Tanklersley (18 G, 2-4, 1.64 ERA, 4 SV) suffered a loss and earned a save in his two appearances at Kentucky ... He was the losing pitcher in the Tide's 9-8, 12-inning setback on Saturday as he allowed his first run of the season out of the pen (21 IP, 12 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 24 K) to snap his streak of 20 1/3 scoreless innings of relief ... He struck out Mike Bertram on Sunday to end the game and clinch UA's first SEC series win of the year ... Junior RHP Andrew Walker (13 G, 4-0, 2.98 ERA) earned his first career SEC win at UK (3.1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K) on May 16 ... Senior RHP Seth Johnson (21 G, 2-3, 4.63 ERA) continued his struggles out of the pen this weekend, especially on Sunday ... In two appearances, Johnson was touched for seven runs and 12 hits in just 2 1/3 innings ... In his last seven relief appearances, Johnson has yielded 18 earned runs (13.13 ERA) in 12 1/3 innings, including six runs and eight hits in one inning on Sunday ...
