NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional: Game 1 Notes & Quotes
6/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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Game 01 ?? Alabama 13 - Jacksonville State 1, 9 innings
Post-game Notes and Quotes
Friday, June 2, 2006
University of Alabama
Head Coach Jim Wells
On balance of hitting and pitching in this game: “That’s good, and I think it’s a little contagious and which is a good thing. Some of the guys started swinging the bat a little better when we got a little lead. That’s been us. So maybe we can get hot for a few days, so I was really happy to see that because you have to score eventually and we did that tonight.”
On LeBlanc being 11-0 and his pitching vs. JSU: “He pitched good enough to win. He was better the last two times but he pitched good enough to win. He’s just one of those guys who can throw the ball up at your neck and they swing at it. It’s the dangdest thing I’ve ever seen. But he did a good job. You look at the numbers and he struck out guys, he didn’t walk too many and didn’t give up too many hits, so he certainly did well.”
On his take of finishing a game at 1:00 a.m. and playing next day: “I haven’t been up at 1 o’clock since I was like 27 so I can’t really talk from experience. We haven’t been here too much. But they’ll be fine. I mean, they probably stay up this late anyway. So I think we’ll be alright.”
#23 Wade LeBlanc, Pitcher:
“There were some good innings and there were some bad innings. I had a couple of bad innings that I had to fight through. Other than that I threw pretty well considering the conditions and the 1 o’clock game finish.”
On his pitching settling following JSU’s home run: “That gave them the lead, so I knew I had to at least keep it there and let that be all that they got to give these guys a chance to score some runs for us.”
On rain delays, starting game six hours later than scheduled, etc.: “I think it would have been more difficult if we had actually started the game and had to sit out. But since the game never even got close to starting before the delay it wasn’t much of an issue.”
On setting single season strike out record during the game: “I’m only a records guy when we win. Those records, they don’t mean anything if we lose. So the important thing was that we came out and we played well as a squad tonight. They swung the bats and played well behind me.”
#3 Greg Paiml, Short Stop:
“We didn’t get that much time to warm up and go through the normal routine (because of the six hour start delay), but I guess once we finally got a couple of hits here and there we all started to get going.”
“It’s perfect time to start the bats coming. It’s a new season, the post season, so any hit will help.”
On LeBlanc’s pitching possibly giving team more confidence in this game: “With our pitching, especially the way Wade pitched today, a couple of hits here and there, once we get started, you can’t stop us.”
Alabama Notes:
?? Alabama improved to 42-19 on the season with its 8-1 win over Jacksonville State.
?? Alabama will play Troy (46-14) in a winner’s bracket game on Saturday, June 3 at 6:30 p.m. JSU will play Southern Miss (38-22) in a loser’s bracket game at 2:30 p.m.
?? Alabama junior left-hander Wade LeBlanc (Lake Charles, La.) became the school’s single-season strikeout leader with his 119th strikeout of the year when he fanned Jason Horn in the second inning. He broke the previous record of 118 strikeouts previously held by Bobby Sprowl in 1977. LeBlanc tied the record when he struck out Jake Ball to end the first inning.
?? LeBlanc finished the game with eight strikeouts to give him 124 strikeouts on the season.
?? The 13 runs scored by Alabama were the most ever scored when LeBlanc was the starting pitcher.
?? The left-hander improved to 11-0 on the season with 7 2/3 innings of work. He limited JSU to one run and five hits, with four walks and eight strikeouts. Dating back to last year, LeBlanc has won his last 12 decisions for Alabama.
?? Junior shortstop Greg Paiml (Hoover) went 4-for-4 in his first career post-season start. The four hits tied an Alabama record for hits in an NCAA Regional game. Zac Welch was the last UA player to have four hits in an NCAA Tournament game going 4-for-4 against Tulane on June 6, 2005. Paiml drove in Alabama’s first run with an RBI single in the three-run fourth inning as the Tide took a 3-1 lead.
?? Junior center fielder Emeel Salem (Mountain Brook) gave the Crimson Tide a 3-1 lead with a two-run triple in the fourth inning. It was his seventh triple of the year.
?? Senior third baseman Matt Downs (Centreville) tied the Alabama single-season record with his 12th sacrifice bunt of the season. Nate Duncan (1997) and Adam Pavkovich (2003) also had 12 sac bunts for the Crimson Tide.
?? Senior Kody Valverde (Baton Rouge, La.) hit a grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning to give the Crimson Tide an 8-1 lead. It was the first grand slam of the year by an Alabama player and the first
?? The start of the Alabama-Jax State game was delayed three hours. The Troy-Southern Miss game had two rain delays that totaled two hours and 26 minutes. The first rain delay came in the top of the fourth inning and the second delay came in the top of the seventh inning. Both delays were exactly one hour and 13 minutes in length.
Jacksonville State University
Head Coach Jim Case
On leaving the bases loaded early: “When a game ends 13-1 it’s hard to know how it would have turned out (had we cashed in our early opportunities). We had opportunities early. It’s a credit to (LeBlanc). We did have our opportunities but he was able to work out of it.”
On the decision to play tonight: “If we didn’t play tonight and both of us had to play two games tomorrow, it would have been a disadvantage to both of us. We also felt that, if we had to play on Monday, that it would have hurt the availability of some players to be able to come back and play.”
On Alabama’s Wade LeBlanc: “I think he’s outstanding. I can’t compare tonight to anything because we haven’t seen him. When he was in a jam, he threw his best. That’s a credit to him. When you are undefeated and have his record he has had to work out of some jams before.”
Jacksonville State University Notes:
* Senior Jason Horn hit his fourth home run of the season to give Jax State a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning. It was his second post-season homer this year.
* Catcher Richard Turner recorded his seventh pick-off of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning after getting Avila at second base.
* JSU starting pitcher Donovan Hand pitched 4.2 innings and did not record a strike out for the first time this season. Hand suffered his first loss after seven straight wins. His last loss was March 25th at Austin Peay (3-1 loss).
* Sophomore Clay Whittemore had his 11-game hitting streak snapped in the game.
* Tonight’s loss to Alabama snaps a six-game winning streak. It was the second longest win streak of the 2006 season. JSU had a seven-game streak earlier this season.
* The Gamecocks fell to 0-9 when scoring just one run on the season.
* JSU freshman Justin King made his post-season debut vs the Crimson Tide in the eighth inning. He transferred to Jax State in January after spending the fall playing for Alabama.
* The Gamecocks’ pitching staff failed to record a strikeout for the first time this season. Their previous low was two, which happened three times.
