Alabama Baseball Team Headed to New Orleans Regional
5/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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New Orleans Regional Bracket
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama baseball team (38-21) will be the No. 2 seed this weekend at the New Orleans Regional, hosted by Tulane University.
The Tulane Green Wave (50-9) are the overall No. 1 seed in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.
The Crimson Tide will open the 2005 NCAA Regional against No. 3 seed UL Lafayette (47-17) at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, June 3 at Turchin Stadium on the Tulane campus.
No. 1 seed Tulane will play No. 4 seed Southern (29-16) in the other first-round game at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, June 3.
"We are happy to be playing in an NCAA Regional," Alabama head coach Jim Wells said following the announcement Monday morning. "We are going to Tulane, who is the overall No. 1 seed. It could be Texas, Cal State Fullerton or anybody. Tulane is very good. This is a tough regional, but we have no control over that.
"Our focus turns to UL Lafayette, who is a really good team. They have an outstanding pitcher that we will have to matchup with on Friday. They were in Omaha a few years (2000) ago and have a really good program.
"We also have to get ready for Tulane and Southern. They are both very good teams. Our plan is to get ready to play and win three or four games this weekend."
Alabama will have several players making a return to their home state this weekend for the New Orleans. Sophomore pitcher/outfielder Brandon Belcher (Ruston), junior LHP Kenneth Brown (Lafayette), freshman RHP Casey Kebodeaux (Mandeville), sophomore LHP Wade LeBlanc (Lake Charles), senior infielder Rocky Scelfo (Youngsville), senior outfielder Gabe Scott (Lake Charles) and junior catcher Kody Valverde (Baton Rouge) all hail from Louisiana.
I am excited about playing in Louisiana," Scelfo said. "UL plays hard and they have a very good baseball coach. Tulane is very good team and ranked No. 1. Southern is good, too, and they beat LSU this year. It will be a hostile environment against all the Louisiana schools, but it will be fun.
"I know a lot of the guys from UL. I hate having to play them. They are really good, they play hard, plus I am friends with most all of them. That makes it even tougher.
