NCAA Regional: Game 6 Notes and Quotes
6/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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2006 NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional |
POST-GAME NOTES and QUOTES
University of Alabama
Head Coach Jim Wells
“I’m proud of our team, the way we managed to score some runs. I would like to say Troy is a very, very good team, one of the best hitting clubs I’ve seen all year, including our conference. We were fortunate they had to play another game. But I’ve never seen so many hard-hit balls. It was like live play sets with the Jugz (pitching) machine. They were really good.
“I’m proud of our guys. And somehow they helped us a lot. There were some errors and walks but there were some good swings in there. We’re certainly going to have to put more good swings together and play a little better against the North Carolina team. But I’m just so happy that we’re in the position to be able to play North Carolina and be in the Super Regional right now.”
# 9 Kody Valverde, Catcher:
“It was a good opportunity to hit. I could see the ball pretty good and got some breaks this weekend and shorten up my swing a little bit, hit more singles, try and drive the ball up the middle more. I was seeing the ball better this weekend than I have in a few weeks so it worked out good.”
#26 Matt Downs, 3rd Baseman:
“We tried to jump on them early because we knew they had a couple of good guys out of the pen. You know, (Mike) Felix, I’m sure he was wanting to come back if it came down to it and (Josh) Dew at first base so we tried to get in their pen early so those guys wouldn’t be a factor in the game because we know when they come in the game and the game’s close and they can throw well. So we just tried to stop the starting pitcher early and we got a couple of breaks and a couple of big hits and before we knew it we had them seven or eight to nothing and we never slowed up, thank goodness.”
#45 Bernard Robert, Pitcher:
“The offense jumped on them early and that put a little pressure off (so I was able to just) bear down and make pitches. Our defense made some great plays in the outfield and in the infield and that really helped me out”
Alabama Notes:
?? Alabama (44-19) captured its sixth NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional championship with a 14-5 win over Troy in the championship game Sunday night at the Joe. Alabama went 3-0 in the regional and will now face North Carolina next week in the NCAA Super Regionals. This will be UA’s second Super Regional appearance and first since 1999.
?? Alabama’s six NCAA Regional championships have come in 1950, 1983, 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2006. The Crimson Tide is 6-8 (.429) all-time in regional championship games since their first appearance in 1950. Alabama is 4-5 (.444) in championship games under Coach Jim Wells and has played in the finals in nine of his 10 NCAA Regional appearances.
?? Alabama’s 14 runs tonight are the second-most by the Crimson Tide in an NCAA Regional championship game. The most runs scored were 18 against Virginia (18-8) in the 1996 NCAA South I Regional here in Tuscaloosa.
?? Alabama improves to 18-2 (.900) in NCAA Tournament games at home. The Crimson Tide is 16-2 (.889) in NCAA Regional games and 2-0 in Super Regional play.
?? Alabama is 31-7 at home this season.
?? Alabama had seven players on the 2006 NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional All-Tournament team, including senior catcher Kody Valverde, senior first baseman Spencer Pennington, junior shortstop Greg Paiml, senior third baseman Matt Downs, junior center fielder Emeel Salem, junior LHP Wade LeBlanc and sophomore RHP David Robertson.
?? Valverde (Baton Rouge) was named the 2006 NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional MVP after going 10-for-14 (.714) in Alabama’s three games with one double, one home run and eight RBI. He also scored five runs.
?? In the championship game against Troy, he went 5-for-6 with two runs scored and two RBI. The five hits tied the Alabama single-game record held by many players. Emeel Salem was the last to collect five hits at UAB on April 26, 2006. Valverde’s five hits set an Alabama NCAA Regional record, breaking the previous record of four hits, most recently by Greg Paiml in Friday’s win over Jacksonville State. Valverde’s five hits tied the UA post-season, which was held by David Magadan in the 1983 College World Series.
?? Salem (Mountain Brook) recorded his 100th hit of the season with an infield hit in the second inning. Salem is the 7th UA player with 100 hits in a season.
?? Downs (Centreville) had a three-run double in the third inning to give Alabama an 8-0 lead. Downs went 1-for-3 in the win over Troy with four RBI. He leads UA with 61 RBI this season.
?? Alabama scored five runs on six hits in the second inning as the Crimson Tide built an early 5-0 lead against the Trojans.
?? Alabama (44-19), College of Charleston (46-15), Georgia Tech (48-16), Miami, Fla. (39-21), North Carolina (48-13), Ole Miss (43-20) and Stanford (33-25) all advanced to the Super Regionals on Sunday.
?? The 2006 NCAA Tuscaloosa All-Regional Team consisted of Valverde (C, Alabama), Pennington (1B, Alabama), Edgar Ramirez (2B, Troy), Paiml (SS, Alabama), Downs (3B, Alabama), Salem (OF, Alabama), Toddric Johnson (OF, Southern Miss), Mike Felix (OF, Troy), Brian Dozier (UTL, Southern Miss), LeBalnc (P, Alabama) and Robertson (P, Alabama).
Troy University
Head Coach Bobby Pierce
“Tonight’s game started off a little rough. Our starting pitcher didn’t get off the start we had hoped for. I thought that throughout the night we hit the ball off the bat pretty well. Emeel Salem made some nice plays running down some balls to stop some potential rallies. Defensively we didn’t play well the entire day. We got off to a slow start against Southern Miss and didn’t play well against Alabama. That’s uncharacteristic of our ball club. We were a little bit short on pitching. J.J. Whetsel did really good job of trying to hold the game in check.”
“I’m very proud of our team. They’ve had a very good year. It’s probably the best year we’ve had since our program has been a Division I program. Today was Alabama’s day. They have an excellent club and are very deserving of moving on to the Super Regional and we wish them all the best of luck.”
#27 Clint Robinson, DH
“We hit the ball well in the beginning. They made some good plays to keep us off the bases and we didn’t really help ourselves out on defense. That’s the way it happened in the beginning. They were able to get ahead early and we couldn’t do enough to come back.”
#15 Mike Felix, RF
“We accomplished a lot this year. We set a goal to be 41-15. We exceeded that at 47-16. We wanted to make the Super Regional but the better team won.”
#3 Tom King, SS
On 2nd inning error: “I just flat out booted the ball. It was a routine double-play ball and I came up at the last second. I let it slide under my glove. I felt really bad about that because Stephen Morelock was doing really well. That kind of opened the floodgates for them. If I make that play then maybe things are different.”
Troy Notes:
?? Junior shortstop Tom King fell one double shy in his bid for the NCAA single-season record. King had an apparent double in the fifth inning, but had to stop at first when the runner in front of him, Edgar Ramirez, was held at second. His double in the ninth was his NCAA leading 35th and he also leads the nation in hits with 117. King’s RBI double also gave him his 73rd RBI of the season, tying the school record set by Jorge Soto in 1999 at 73.
?? Senior Nick made his first NCAA Regional at bat a memorable one, launching a two-run homer off Bernard Robert in the sixth inning as a pinch hitter for freshman catcher Beau Brooks. It was Smith’s eighth homer of the year and 21st in his two seasons at Troy.
?? The Trojans finished the season without being shutout in 63 games. The last time Troy was shutout was April 19, 2005, at Birmingham-Southern (6-0). The Trojans have not been shutout in their last 84 games.
?? Troy’s 47 victories in 2006 are the third most in a season school history and the most in a season since moving to Division I. Troy’s two biggest seasons in terms of wins were 1990 (49-10) and 1986 (48-8).
?? Troy’s Edgar Ramirez and Mike Felix were named to the All-Regional team.
?? Troy set team season records in 2006 for at bats, runs, hits, doubles, RBI, total bases, hit by pitch, fielding chances, put outs, assists, innings pitched, strikeouts, and balks. Troy also tied the season record with 14 saves.
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