Alabama Crimson Tide Baseball Weekly Report
5/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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SEC Record: 14-10 (583) (1st SEC West, 3rd Overall)
Streak: 9-4 record in last 13 games; 6-4 record in last 10 SEC games
Last Week: 2-2 (.500)
Alabama 5, UAB 4
Mississippi State 7, Alabama 3
Alabama 5, Mississippi State 3
Mississippi State 5, Alabama 3
This Week:
May 13 - vs. Arkansas (6:30 PM)
May 14 - vs. Arkansas (4 PM)
May 15 - vs. Arkansas (11 AM) (CSS)
ALABAMA NOTEBOOK:
*Seniors Brent Carter (Americus, Ga.), Gabe Scott (Lake Charles, La.) and Rocky Scelfo (Youngsville, La.) all graduated from The University of Alabama this past weekend. In addition, student manager Nick Johnson also earned his undergraduate degree from the Capstone this weekend.
*Alabama (34-16, 14-10 SEC) dropped two of three at Mississippi State this weekend in Starkville and maintains its first-place standing in the Southeastern Conference Western Division. Alabama shares the top spot with LSU and has been in first place or tied for first place after all 24 SEC games this season. In the overall SEC standings, Alabama is 1 1/2 games behind league-leading Tennessee (15-8) and one game back of second place Florida (15-9).
*Alabama has now lost 13 of its last 16 series against Mississippi State in Starkville. Alabama has not won here since 2001. Overall, MSU has won the last three series with Alabama, dating back to 2003. The Bulldogs have won seven of the last nine meetings with the Crimson Tide.
*Alabama is 9-4 in its last 13 games, including a 6-4 record in its last 10 SEC games dating back to April 17.
*Alabama trailed in two of the three games at Mississippi State this weekend and has trailed in 38 of its 50 games this season. For the season, Alabama has been tied or has trailed in 220 of 428 innings through 50 games. Alabama did not trail in its 5-3 win over MSU on Saturday, May 7 marking the first time since April 1 the Crimson Tide had not trailed in an SEC game. Prior to the win over MSU, Alabama had trailed in 15 straight SEC games.
*Alabama (4-0) and Miss. State (4-0) are the only two SEC teams not to lose a home conference series year. Last year, Alabama joined Auburn as the only two teams not to win a home series in 2004.
*Senior left-hander Brent Carter made history Friday, May 6 in Starkville as he became the Crimson Tide’s all-time strikeout leader with his 290th career strikeout in the fifth inning. Carter (Americus, Ga.) struck out MSU left fielder Brian LaNinfa in the fifth inning to break the previous record of 289 career strikeouts held by former Tide All-American Lance Cormier. Cormier (1999-2002) now pitches for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He tied the all-time mark when he struck out LaNinfa in the third inning. Carter has appeared in 71 career games for Alabama and compiled a 24-10 (.706) record and 3.64 ERA. He has logged 314 1/3 innings and allowed 303 hits, 151 runs and 127 earned runs, with 63 walks and 292 strikeouts.
*Alabama had a season-high seven doubles in the loss to MSU. The seven doubles fell just two short of the Alabama single-game record for two-base hits.
*Senior DH Allen Rice made his 200th career start in the series opener at Miss. State on May 6. Rice will make his 100th career SEC start this Friday night when Alabama hosts Arkansas in Tuscaloosa.
*Senior LF Gabe Scott (4-for-10, HR, 2 RBI) was Alabama’s leading hitter at Miss. State this past weekend. Scott hit a two-run home run in the series opener and reached base safely in all three games to extend his on-base streak to 39 consecutive games dating back to Feb. 25.
*Scott (.411, 11 HR, 30 RBI) is the SEC’s second-leading hitter this season and trails Ole Miss’ Brian Pettway (.421, 15 HR, 56 RBI) by 11 points for the overall batting title. The last UA player to win the SEC batting title was Mike Twardowski (.399) in 1986.
*In SEC play, Scott (.430, 8 HR, 23 RBI) leads the league in hitting and is 16 points better than Tennessee’s Chase Headley’s (.414, 8 HR, 24 RBI) second-place total.
*Junior third baseman Evan Bush (.285, 14 HR, 47 RBI) is just 3-for-21 (.143) in his last six SEC games, but all three hits have gone for extra bases. He had two hits in the MSU series, including a two-run home run in the first inning on May 7 that gave the Tide a 2-0 lead en route to a 5-3 win. Bush leads UA with 14 home runs and 47 RBI. He also leads the team with 10 game-winning RBI in 2005.
*Senior RF Morrow Thomley (5-for-13, 3 R, 2 2B, RBI) was the second-leading for Alabama at Miss. State. Thomley (.307, 4 HR, 32 RBI) has hit safely in six straight games, the longest active hitting streak on the team.
*Freshman RHP David Robertson (6-3, 6 SV, 1.96 ERA) recorded nine strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings in two relief appearances against Mississippi State.
*Senior Matt Grooms (.333, HR, 4 RBI) delivered a pinch-hit double in the ninth inning and 8-for-16 as a pinch-hitter in 2005. For his career, Grooms is 11-for-21 as a pinch-hitter.
