ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE BASEBALL NOTEBOOK
5/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Overall Record: 36-17 (.679)
SEC Record: 17-10 (.000) (1st SEC West; 2nd Overall)
Streak: Won 2
Last Week: 2-1 (.667)
May 12 -- Florida 4, Alabama 3 (CSS)
May 13 -- Alabama 7, Florida 2
May 14 -- Alabama 8, Florida 4
This Week:
May 18 -- at Tennessee (7 PM) (ET)
May 19 -- at Tennessee (7 PM) (ET)
May 20 -- at Tennessee (7:06 PM) (ET) (CSS)
Player of the Week Nominee
24 Spencer Pennington (Sr., 1B, 6-4, 220, Fayette, Alabama)
3 GS, 4-for-9 (.444), HR, 6 RBI, 2 R
*Pennington was the Crimson Tide’s leading hitter and run producer in the series win over Florida
*He batted .444 (4-for-9) with one home run and six RBI
*He went 2-for-4 with a home run and career-high five RBI in UA’s 7-2 win over the Gators on May 13. Just hours after earning his bachelor’s degree from the Capstone, Pennington accounted for six of the Tide’s seven runs in the win. He sparked a four-run third inning with a two-run single
*Pennington capped the scoring with a three-run home run in the fifth as UA took a 7-0 lead. The three-run home run was his second of the year and third of his career. Two of the three home runs have come against Florida.
*For the season, Pennington is batting .318 (42-for-132) with two home runs and 20 RBI (all career highs).
Pitcher of the Week Nominee
23 Wade LeBlanc (Jr., LHP, 6-3, 193, Lake Charles, La.)
1 GS, 1-0, 2.70 ERA, 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K
*LeBlanc improved to 8-0 on the season with a win over Florida on May 13.
*He is the first UA pitcher to start the season 8-0 since Lance Cormier (now with the Atlanta Braves) in 2002
*LeBlanc held the Gators to two runs and four hits in six-plus innings.
*He added eight strikeouts to tie Brent Carter’s (2002-05) all-time record with 307 career strikeouts.
*LeBlanc also became the first pitcher in UA history to post two, 100 strikeout seasons. He had 108 last year as a sophomore. He narrowly missed that mark as a freshman in 2004, with 98 strikeouts.
*In 14 starts this year, LeBlanc is 8-0 with a 3.00 ERA. He has worked 102 innings and allowed 73 hits, 35 runs and 34 earned runs, with 36 walks and 101 strikeouts.
ALABAMA BASEBALL NOTEBOOK
*Alabama (36-17, 17-10 SEC) is one of five teams to clinch an SEC Tournament (May 24-28) berth this weekend. The Crimson Tide joins Kentucky, Georgia, Ole Miss and Arkansas in the field. The Crimson Tide has qualified for the SEC Tournament 20 times since its inception in 1977, including 10 of 12 years under head coach Jim Wells.
*The Crimson Tide’s magic number to win the school’s 11th SEC Western Division championship is two games. UA can win the division title this weekend with two wins at Tennessee, or one win at Tennessee and an Arkansas loss to Auburn and Ole Miss loss at Miss. State, or two losses by Arkansas to Auburn and two losses by Ole Miss at MSU.
*Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia are the only three teams with a mathematical chance to win the 2006 SEC Championship heading into the final weekend. Bama trails league-leading Kentucky by two games with three to play. Alabama would need three wins at Tennessee this weekend and three Kentucky losses at Georgia to win its first outright championship since 1983. Two wins by Alabama at Tennessee and two UK losses at Georgia would give the Crimson Tide and Wildcats a share of the league title. Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia could all share the SEC championship this season if the Bulldogs sweep UK and the Tide wins two of three at UT.
*Alabama and Kentucky did not meet during the 2006 regular-season. The last time two division champions did not play in the regular season was 2004 when Georgia won the East and Arkansas won the West.
*Alabama can finish no worse than fifth in the SEC standings.
*Alabama took two of three from Florida this weekend in Tuscaloosa, its first series win over the Gators since 2002.
*The Crimson Tide has won seven of its first nine SEC series this season. UA has series wins over No. 23 Georgia, Ole Miss, No. 1 Miss. State, No. 1 South Carolina, No. 16 Vanderbilt, Auburn and Florida. The series losses came against No. 20 LSU and No. 14 Arkansas.
*Alabama finished the regular-season with a 28-7 (.800) record at home this year. The Crimson Tide was also 12-3 (.800) in SEC home games, the second-best home record since the league adopted the 30-game schedule in 1996. The 1999 and 2002 teams went 13-2 (.867) at home in SEC play.
*The Crimson Tide honored its seven senior players and one senior manager prior to its game with Florida on May 13. The 2006 senior class included Kenneth Brown (LHP, Lafayette, La.), Evan Bush (2B, Rainbow City), Jordan Davis (RHP, Frisco, Texas), Matt Downs (3B, Centreville), David Ferazza (C, Hayward, Calif.), Spencer Pennington (1B, Fayette) and Kody Valverde (C, Baton Rouge, La.) The senior manager was Nick Rambo (Mobile).
*Five of the Crimson Tide’s seven seniors are UA graduates and four of those seniors graduated on Saturday, May 13. The list of graduates includes Kenneth Brown (December, 2005), Jordan Davis (May, 2006), David Ferazza (May, 2006), Spencer Pennington (May, 2006) and Kody Valverde (May, 2006). The other two seniors -- Evan Bush and Matt Downs -- are scheduled to graduate in December, 2006 and all seven seniors will have graduated within the five-year window.
*Pennington (4-for-9, HR, 6 RBI) was the Crimson Tide’s leading hitter and run producer in the series win over Florida. He went 2-for-4 with a home run and career-high five RBI in UA’s 7-2 win over the Gators on May 13. Just hours after earning his bachelor’s degree from the Capstone, Pennington accounted for six of the Tide’s seven runs in the win. He sparked a four-run third inning with a two-run single. Pennington capped the scoring with a three-run home run in the fifth as UA took a 7-0 lead. The three-run home run was his second of the year and third of his career. Two of the three home runs have come against Florida.
*Junior LHP Wade LeBlanc (14 GS, 8-0, 3.00 ERA) improved to 8-0 on the season with a win over Florida on May 13. He is the first UA pitcher to start the season 8-0 since Lance Cormier (now with the Atlanta Braves) in 2002. LeBlanc added eight strikeouts in th win to tie Brent Carter’s (2002-05) all-time record with 307 career strikeouts. LeBlanc is also the pitcher in UA history to post two, 100 strikeout seasons. He had 108 last year as a sophomore. He narrowly missed that mark as a freshman in 2004, with 98 strikeouts. In 14 starts this year, LeBlanc is 8-0 with a 3.00 ERA. He has worked 102 innings and allowed 73 hits, 35 runs and 34 earned runs, with 36 walks and 101 strikeouts.
*Freshman RHP Tommy Hunter (12 GS, 8-3, 3.34 ERA) tied the Alabama single-season freshman record with his eighth win of the year on Sunday, May 14 against Florida. B.J. Green (1998), Scott Murphy (1999), Taylor Tankersley (2002) and Wade LeBlanc (2004) also won eight games as freshmen for the Crimson Tide.
*Junior CF Emeel Salem (53 GS, .368, 2 HR, 23 RBI, 30-39 SB) had two stolen bases in Sunday’s win over Florida to give him 30 stolen bases this season. He is currently tied with Omar Fernandez (1997) for eighth place on the single season list.
*Freshman DH Alex Avila (49 G, .296, 4 HR, 35 RBI) matched his season-high with four RBI in Sunday’s 8-4 win over Florida. He had at least one RBI in first three plate appearances, including a two-run home run in the first inning.
*Alabama will close out the 2006 regular-season at Tennessee this weekend in Knoxville in the debut of the year-end Thursday, Friday, Saturday weekend series. The Crimson Tide has not played the Vols since the 2003 season and has not won a series in Knoxville since 1999.
*The last time Alabama played a Thursday-Friday-Saturday weekend series came against BYU in 2000.
