2006 NCAA Tuscaloosa Super Regional-Game 1 Notes and Quotes
6/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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2006 NCAA Tuscaloosa Super Regional |
NCAA Baseball Championships
Tuscaloosa Super Regional
University of Alabama
Head Coach Jim Wells
“It was a tough night. Their guy was good. Dominating. And what gets lost in the shuffle when you get beat up like that. We just didn’t play well in any phase of the game whether it was fielding a bunt or turning a double play it led to runs being scored. And they’re a good team, and we have to, like we’ve had all year for the most part, keep the game close and have a chance to win in the end, hopefully get into their bullpen.
“This particular team’s success is precipitated on, set up by pitching. So if that breaks down--- which, thankfully it hasn’t much this year but at an inopportune time right now??it’s hard for us to win. We really have to match their guys who are very good.
“But tomorrow is another day, and hopefully we will play better and even this series up. I believe that we can do that. I believe that that’s possible. I really do. I know every coach is supposed to say that but if we do what we’ve done all year we will have a chance to win and have a chance to win this thing.”
#23 Wade LeBlanc, Pitcher:
On his night on the mound: “To sum it up in one word, my night was terrible. I didn’t come out and do my job. My job was to come out and keep the game close and give these guys a chance. They did their part. I just didn’t come out and do mine.”
On if the two-run home run hit in the 1st inning affected him: “Not really. It seems like I give up a home run every game. By now I’m used to it. That’s one of those things that you have to bounce back from and I wasn’t able to do that tonight.”
On what wasn’t working: “You name it, it wasn’t working. I didn’t have anything tonight. The biggest game of my year and I didn’t bring my ??A’ game. I didn’t bring it to the table.”
#2 Emeel Salem, Outfielder:
“There’s a reason he’s (Andrew Miller) the sixth pick in the draft. He’s a great pitcher. And it’s really hard to solve a guy like that. He has three pitches and even movement on a 97 mile an hour fastball. We didn’t capitalize when we had chances but he didn’t make enough mistakes for us to get anything going.”
On the approach to Saturday’s game in the best-of-three series: “We have to forget about this. Luckily this is a three-game set. It’s not live or die in one day (the first day). Now tomorrow we need to play better. We need to execute and play better small ball, play better defense. But this thing is far from over. We’re still in it and we’re confident we can come away with it.”
Alabama Notes:
?? Alabama dropped an 11-5 decision to No. 5 North Carolina in the first game of the best-of-three Super Regionals tonight in Tuscaloosa. North Carolina (49-13) is one win away from advancing to the College World Series for the first time since 1989. Alabama (44-20) needs two wins on Saturday and Sunday to advance to Omaha for the first time since 1999.
?? Alabama allowed a season-high 17 hits in Friday’s loss to North Carolina.
?? Alabama batters struck out a season-high 13 times in the loss to UNC. The previous high was 12 strikeouts against Winthrop (Feb. 12) and Troy (March 29).
?? The Crimson Tide scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to avoid its first post-season shutout in 11 years. Alabama was last shutout by Winthrop (6-0) in the 1995 NCAA East Regional in Clemson, SC.
?? The paid attendance tonight was 5,240, which is the fourth largest crowd of the season.
?? Freshman RF Ryan Rhoden (Tuscaloosa) broke up Andrew Miller’s no-hitter with a two-out single down the right field line in the bottom of the fourth inning.
?? Rhoden also recorded his third outfield assist of the season when he threw out Jay Cox trying to stretch a single into a double in the eighth inning. Alabama has 13 OF assists this year.
?? Junior Brandon Belcher (Ruston, La.) stroked a one-out double to right-center field with one out in the fifth inning. Belcher’s double was just the seventh extra base hit (6 doubles, 1 HR) allowed by Miller this season.
?? Alabama junior left-hander Wade LeBlanc (Lake Charles, La.), a second-round pick by the San Diego Padres earlier this week, allowed a career-high eight runs and 10 hits in Friday’s loss to North Carolina. LeBlanc walked one and added four strikeouts as his 12-game winning streak came to an end. This was his first loss since a 3-1 setback to Ole Miss on May 25, 2005 at the SEC Tournament.
?? Junior CF Emeel Salem (Mountain Brook) extended his hitting streak to seven consecutive games with an infield single in the seventh inning. Salem finished the game 1-for-5 and struck out three times. In addition, Salem has hit safely in all eight NCAA Tournament games in his UA career.
?? Freshman RF Kent Matthes (Orlando, Fla.) had two hits and one RBI to lead the UA offense against the Tar Heels. Matthes was 2-for-4 in the loss with two runs scored.
?? Freshman Alex Avila (Hialeah, Fla.) and sophomore Matt Bentley (Hazel Green) had back-to-back pinch-hit singles in the eighth inning. Avila was 1-for-25 in his last 13 games before the pinch-hit single tonight.
?? Sophomore RHP Josh Copeland (Palmetto, Ga.) threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief in the loss to UNC. He allowed two hits, walked one and struck out one in the game. It was Copeland’s first relief appearance a one-inning stint at Arkansas on May 6, 2006. He has pitched in only six games (8 1/3 IP) since March 11.
University of North Carolina
Head Coach Mike Fox
“This is obviously a big win for us. I thought Josh Horton’s homerun jumpstarted us and anytime we can get a lead early for Andrew Miller, if he is throwing like he has for most of the year, then we feel confident. After that we’re just trying to tack on runs.”
“We did some things offensively and Andrew threw really well for us. This was a big win for us but we know how tough it is going to be and we’re sure that Alabama is going to come out tomorrow and give us their best shot.”
“Andrew has a terrific breaking ball and hard slider and that’s a tough pitch for lefties to hit. We threw Alabama a lot of them and when we thought they might be diving for the off-speed pitch we threw them a fastball inside just to keep them honest.”
#33 Andrew Miller, P
“It was nice to put some runs on the board in the first inning and then when Tim Federowicz hit the home run to make it 5-0 it was easy to relax. I was able to go out there and throw the ball over the plate and let them hit it in play.”
# 12 Josh Horton, SS
On first inning home run: “I got a good pitch up in the zone, a curveball, and I was able to put a good swing on it. (Mike) Cavasinni set the tone with a good at bat and ended up poking one throw and really set the tone at the plate for us.”
#11 Mike Cavasinni, CF
On first at bat of the game: “In the first at bat I always try to work the count as deep as I can and see as many pitches as possible. (LeBlanc) kept throwing fastball after fastball when I was sitting off-speed and I was just trying to foul off anything that wasn’t an off-speed pitch. He laid a fastball inside and luckily I got my hand through it and hit it up the middle.”
UNC Notes:
?? North Carolina’s 11-5 win Friday was its first-ever Super Regional victory, and the Tar Heels are one win away from their first trip to the College World Series since 1989 and fifth in school history. In its only other trip to the Super Regionals, UNC was 0-2 at South Carolina in 2003.
?? The Tar Heels have now scored 11 or more runs in all four NCAA tournament games and have reached double-digits in four straight for the just the second time this season (first since March 18-22). UNC has now outscored its opponents 54-18 in the NCAA tournament.
?? With 17 hits Friday, Carolina tallied 10 or more hits for the fourth time in four NCAA tourney contests and for the ninth game in a row. The Tar Heels’ 17 hits were the most allowed by Alabama this season.
?? With the win Friday, Andrew Miller improves to 13-2 on the season and is the Tar Heels’ first 13-game winner since Greg Norris in 1978, who won a school-record 14. Miller is now 27-9 in his career and struck out 11 to push his UNC career mark to 311. Miller now has 10-plus strikeouts five times this season and nine times in his career (second time in last four starts). He now has 119 this season, which is third in program history (six shy of Sean Murphy’s record in 1995).
?? With a 5-for-6 effort Friday, Mike Cavasinni set a career high in hits and now has six multi-hit games in the last seven, including three in four NCAA tournament games. He now has 11 hits in the postseason and his five-hit effort Friday was just the second of the season for UNC.
?? Jay Cox went 2-for-5 and drove in three runs to push his postseason RBI total to 14 in just four games. He now has a career-best 58 RBI on the year.
?? Josh Horton’s first-inning home run was his second over the last two games and career-best seventh of the season. His homer gave the Tar Heels their first first-inning runs in the postseason. Horton was 2-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored.
?? Tim Federowicz hit a two-run homer for the second straight game and now has 10 home runs this season. He is the third UNC freshman over the last two seasons to reach double-digits in home runs, joining Chad Flack and Seth Williams. He now has 11 hits in the postseason.
?? Chad Flack, who was 3-for-6, extended his current hitting streak to 12 games ?? one shy of his career high ?? and drove in a run for the 10th game in a row. He now has 43 RBI in the last 29 games and a team-high 62 on the season.
?? Seth Williams was 2-for-4 with a walk and now has seven hits in the last three games.
