Alabama Crimson Tide Baseball Weekly Report
4/10/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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Overall Record: 24-10 (.706)
SEC Record: 8-4 (.667) (T1st Overall, 1st SEC West)
Streak: Won 23 of last 29 games; Won 5 of last 7 vs. Top 25 Teams
Last Week: 2-1 (.667)
Alabama 5, Ole Miss 4
Ole Miss 12, Alabama 10
Alabama 12, Ole Miss 6
This Week:
April 12 - vs. Memphis (6:30 PM)
April 15 - at Florida (6:30 PM, ET)
April 16 - at Florida (4:07 PM, ET) - Fox Sports Net South
April 17 - at Florida (Noon, ET)
PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINATION:
21 Gabe Scott (OF, Sr., Lake Charles, La.)
*Gabe Scott was Alabama’s leading hitter for the second week in a row as he batted .583 (7-for-12) with three home runs and seven RBI, leading the Crimson Tide to a series win at No. 9 Ole Miss. Scott scored six runs on the weeknd and compiled a 1.333 slugging mark and a .688 on-base percentage. He reached base 11 of 16t times in the three-game series, with four walks.
*He slugged two home runs in the series opener, including a game-tying home run in the eighth inning of the Tide’s 5-4 win. It was his first career multi home run game at Alabama.
*He added another game-tying home run on Saturday, with a three-run blast in the sixth inning to tie the game at 6-6. Alabama trailed 6-0 entering the inning and Scott tied the game with his fifth home run in five games. He later added an RBI single in the the seventh inning as part of a four-run inning to erase a four-run deficit and tie the game at 10-10.
*Scott went 2-for-4 in the series finale and reached base four times, with a pair walks. He led off the third inning with a single and later scored what proved to be the winning run on Allen Rice’s first career grand slam that gave Bama a 6-2 lead in an eventual 12-6 victory.
*The Lake Charles, La., native hit safely in all three games at Ole Miss to extend his career-best hitting streak to 21 consecutive games. During the streak, Scott is batting .437 (31-for-71) with 16 runs scored, five home runs and 15 RBI. He has raised his season batting average 207 points since the streak began on Feb. 26.
*For the season, Scott leads Alabama with a .407 (33-for-81) average with five home runs and 16 RBI in 27 games. For the season, Scott has a .630 slugging percentage. In 12 SEC games, Scott is batting .476 (20-for-42) with five home runs and 13 RBI. He has an .833 slugging percentage in league play.
ALABAMA NOTEBOOK:
*Alabama (24-10, 8-4 SEC) won two of three from No. 9 Ole Miss this weekend in Oxford. Alabama’s last two SEC series wins have come against Top 10 clubs. The Crimson Tide took two of three from then No. 4 LSU (April 1-3), including a 5-4, 13-inning win in the series finale.
*Alabama is 5-4 (.556) against Top 25 clubs this season and has won five of its last seven games against ranked opponents.
*After a midweek game with Memphis on Tuesday, April 12, Alabama wil play its fourth straight SEC series against a Top 25 opponent this weekend against the Florida Gators. The three-game series with Florida will be Alabama’s third straight Top 10 series and will match two of the teams currently tied for first place in the overall SEC standings. Alabama leads the SEC West with an 8-4 conference record, while Florida and South Carolina are the SEC East co-leaders with 8-4 records. Alabama will host the other SEC Eastern Division leader, South Carolina, the following weekend (April 22-24) in Tuscaloosa.
*For the third straight week, Alabama will be looking to end a series losing streak against an SEC foe. Florida has won the last two series with Alabama, including last year’s series in Tuscaloosa. In the past two weeks, Alabama ended series losing streaks to LSU (5 dating back to 1999) and Ole Miss (4 dating back to 2000).
*Alabama has won back-to-back SEC series for the first time since April 2002 as they swept back-to-back series with Florida and Kentucky.
*Alabama notched its first SEC road series win against Western Division team since winning two out of three at Arkansas in 2002.
*The Crimson Tide has won three of its four SEC series after winning only one SEC series last year.
*Alabama has 13 come-from-behind wins this season, including both wins at Ole Miss over the weekend.
*Alabama won its SEC series opener for the third time in four weekends. Bama has series opening wins over Kentucky, No. 4 LSU and No. 9 Ole Miss. The loss was a 1-0 setback at No. 25 Vanderbilt.
*Alabama has lost three straight Saturday SEC games.
*The Crimson Tide has won all four Sunday SEC games this season, after posting a 1-10 record in Sunday SEC games last season.
*Alabama has won back-to-back games over No. 4 LSU and No. 9 Ole Miss by identical 5-4 scores. This is the second time this season the Crimson Tide has won back-to-back games by the same score. UA opened SEC play with back-to-back 5-3 wins over Kentucky on Mar. 18-19.
*Alabama has eight SEC wins in its first 12 games. The Crimson Tide won only 10 league games all of last season.
*Senior OF Matt Grooms collected a pinch-hit single in the sixth inning for the Crimson Tide. As a pinch-hitter this season, Grooms is a 4-for-8 (.500) and has one hit in each of his last two pinch-hit opportunities.
*Brandon Belcher made his fifth start of the 2005 season on the mound and his first since a win over Birmingham Southern on March 9th. Belcher (4-0) posted his first career complete game in the Sunday win over Ole Miss. He allowed six runs and eight hits, with three walks and four stikeouts.
*Alabama has scored 48 runs Belcher’s five starts this season, an average of 9.6 runs per start for the sophomore.
*Allen Rice went 3-for-5 with five RBI in the 12-6 win over Ole Miss. His infield RBI single in the top of the second inning was his 100th career RBI at Alabama. The Helena, Ala., native added his first career grand slam in his next at in the top of the third inning to give Alabama a 6-2 lead.
*Rice’s grand slam home run was the second of the season by Alabama, and both have been on Sunday. Junior 1B Evan Bush hit a first-inning grand slam in a 23-1 win over McNeese State on Sunday, March 6.
*Rice’s home run was his first in an SEC game since April 6, 2003 at Auburn, a span of 203 at-bats against SEC pitching.
*Alabama tied its season high with three home runs on Sunday. UA also hit three home runs in a win over Samford on March 2. The Crimson Tide has homered in six straight games for the first time since May 10-17, 2003. Alabama has also homered in six consecutive SEC games for the first time since March 24-April 13, 2002 (UA homered in nine straight SEC games during that stretch).
*Alabama (12) and Ole Miss (19) combined for 31 hits in Saturday’s game. The 19 hits by Ole Miss are the most allowed by Alabama in a game this season. The previous high was 16 hits by Miami (Ohio) on March 13, 2005.
*Alabama senior LHP Brent Carter made his 64th career appearance for the Crimson Tide on Saturday, which ranks 8th place on the school’s all-time list. Carter also made his 37th career start on the mound, good for 7th place all-time at Alabama.
*Carter worked four innings on Saturday and remains in second place with 295 career innings. Lance Cormier (1999-2002) holds the record with 384 2/3 innings.
*Carter also added three strikeouts on Saturday to raise his career total to 273 strikeouts. He is one behind Mike Sodders (1985-88) second place total of 274 career strikeouts and needs 17 to break Cormier’s career record of 289 strikeouts.
