Crimson Tide Baseball Team Set to Host Nebraska
3/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
GAMES 17-19: NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS (6-4) AT ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE (12-4)
SEWELL-THOMAS STADIUM ?? TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA ?? 6:30 p.m. (CST)
MARCH 9-11, 2007 -- TOP 20 TEAMS COLLIDE AT THE JOE
ALABAMA, HUSKERS MEET IN KEY SERIES
Following back-to-back losses to No. 26 Southern Mississippi and Tennessee Tech this week, the No. 13 University of Alabama baseball team looks to rebound this weekend as the Crimson Tide hosts No. 17 Nebraska in a key three-game series between Top 20 teams. The Crimson Tide and Cornhuskers open the series Friday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. (CST). The two teams will also play Saturday, March 10 at 4 p.m. (CST) and Sunday, March 11 at 11:06 a.m. (CDT). Live video streaming of all three games will be available on CrimsonTradition.com and HuskerVision. In addition, Sunday’s series finale will be aired locally by WVUA Sports. Rivals.com ranks the Alabama-Nebraska series among the Top 5 in the nation this weekend. Also on that list are Miami, Fla. at North Carolina, Pepperdine at Oklahoma State, Long Beach State at Arizona State and UCLA at Ole Miss. Alabama (12-4) has suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season after Wednesday’s surprising 8-6 home loss to Tennessee Tech. The Crimson Tide fell behind 5-0 in the first inning before tying the game at 6-6 with four-run sixth inning. Tech took the lead for good with two runs in the seventh, one scoring on a costly two-out error. Alabama’s offense is hitting .181 (17-for-94) in its last three games and looks to right itself this weekend against a veteran Nebraska pitching staff. Sophomore right fielder Kent Matthes (Orlando, Fla.) is hitting .387 (24-for-62) with five home runs and 23 RBI and leads the Crimson Tide in virtually every offensive category. He also brings a .677 slugging percentage and .403 on-base mark into the Nebraska series. Nebraska (6-4) dropped two of three last weekend at the Stetson Invitational in DeLand, Fla. A midwest snowstorm and rain in Florida played havoc on the Huskers schedule last weekend. Nebraska dropped a doubleheader with Iowa and Notre Dame on Sunday before beating Stetson Monday before leaving town. Junior second baseman Jake Opitz (Littleton, Colo.) is hitting .343 (12-for-35) with two home runs and 10 RBI. He leads the Huskers in hitting, runs scored and RBI through 10 games.
THE HEAD COACHES
Alabama head baseball coach Jim Wells (Northwestern State, 1980) is the winningest coach in school history. He has compiled a 535-250 (.682) record in 13 seasons at the Capstone. Overall, Wells has posted a 727-339 (.682) record in 18 seasons. Wells is 12-1 (.923) in his career against Southern Miss. Nebraska head coach Mike Anderson is 188-77 (.709) in his fifth year in Lincoln.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP
Odr No. Name Pos. Bats 2007 Stats
1 2 Emeel Salem CF L/L .381 (24x64), 2 HR, 11 RBI, 20 R
2 10 Jeff Texada 2B R/R .292 (17x58), 1 HR, 8 RBI, 13 BB
3 14 Jake Smith 3B R/R .310 (13x42), 2 HR, 15 RBI
4 16 Alex Avila DH L/R .333 (20x60), 2 HR,13 RBI, 7 2B
5 22 Kent Matthes RF R/R .387 (24x62), 5 HR, 23 RBI
6 34 Ryan Rhoden C R/R .370 (20x54), 0 HR, 7 RBI, 12 R
7 25 Matt Bentley 1B L/L .340 (16x47), 1 HR, 10 RBI
8 6 Brandon May LF R/R .417 (10x26), 0 HR, 5 RBI
9 3 Greg Paiml SS R/R .255 (14x55), 1 HR, 10 RBI, 12 R
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday, March 9, 2007 (6:30 p.m.)
Pitcher G-GS W L SV ERA IP H R ER BB K CG
Quigley (LH) 5-4 2 0 0 1.48 24.1 13 4 4 11 29 0
Watson (LH) 2-2 1 0 0 2.25 12.0 7 3 3 5 9 0
Saturday, March 10, 2007 (4 p.m.)
Pitcher G-GS W L SV ERA IP H R ER BB K CG
Kebodeaux (RH) 5-4 2 1 0 1.42 25.1 23 7 4 6 21 0
Shriek (RH) 3-2 1 2 0 5.93 13.2 22 14 9 3 7 0
Sunday, March 11, 2007 (11:06 a.m.) - WVUA Sports
Pitcher G-GS W L SV ERA IP H R ER BB K CG
Robert (RH) 3-1 2 0 0 1.80 10.0 6 2 2 3 7 0
Dorn (RH) 3-3 2 1 0 4.25 19.0 15 11 9 6 13 0
ALABAMA-NEBRASKA TECH SERIES
*Nebraska leads the all-time series with Alabama, 3-0.
*The Cornhuskers swept a three-game series with the Crimson Tide last season in Lincoln.
*Alabama managed only four runs in the three-game series.
ALABAMA-NEBRASKA SCORES
Year Result Site
2006 Nebraska 2, Alabama 1 (11) Lincoln
Nebraska 5, Alabama 1 Lincoln
Nebraska 6, Alabama 2 Lincoln
ALABAMA VS. BIG 12 CONFERENCE
*The Crimson Tide owns a 9-15 (.400) record against the current members of the Big 12 Conference.
*The Crimson Tide has played only five of the 10 baseball playing schools. Colorado and Iowa State do not field baseball teams.
*Alabama has a winning record against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State.
*The Crimson Tide has a losing record against Texas and Nebraska, including a combined 1-11 (.083) mark against the Longhorns and Huskers.
*Nebraska will be the fourth Big 12 team ever to play Alabama in Tuscaloosa, joining Texas, Kansas State and Oklahoma.
*The last Big 12 team to play at the Joe was Oklahoma. The Crimson Tide and Sooners kicked off the 2001 season with a three-game series Feb. 10-11. Alabama swept the series, including a walk-off home run by Aaron Clark to clinch the series finale.
ALL-TIME RECORD VS. BIG 12
Team Record
Baylor 0-0
Kansas 0-0
Kansas State 2-1
Missouri 0-0
Nebraska 0-3
Oklahoma 4-0
Oklahoma State 2-0
Texas 1-8
Texas A&M 0-3
Texas Tech 0-0
NEBRASKA REWIND
*Alabama managed only four runs in its series loss at sixth-ranked Nebraska last season.
*The 2006 Nebraska series is one of only 11 times Alabama has been swept in a three-game series in the Wells era.
*In the three-game set, Alabama batted only .180 (18-for-100) with three doubles and four RBI.
*The telling stat of the series came with men on base, where Alabama was just 1-for-26 (.083) in the three losses.
*Alabama held a 3-2 scoring advantage over Nebraska during the first five innings of the series.
*Nebraska owned an 11-1 scoring advantage in the sixth inning or later in the series last year in Lincoln.
*The Husker pitching staff posted an 0.62 ERA in last year’s series and allowed only two earned runs in 29 innings.
*The four runs scored at Nebraska is the ninth-lowest run total in a three-game series in school history.
*The four runs at Nebraska was the second-lowest run total by Alabama under Coach Wells.
*The four runs scored at Nebraska was the lowest run total since netting only two runs in three losses at South Carolina during the 2000 season.
*The Gamecock swept a series from the Crimson Tide at Sarge Fryer Field winning 4-1, 2-0 and 3-1.
*The 2-0 shutout on April 1, 2000 snapped the Crimson Tide’s school and SEC record scoring streak at 279 consecutive games, which dated back to the 1995 season.
*The lowest run total in a three-game series came against in Florida in 1998 when the Crimson Tide was shutout twice by the Gators and managed only one run in the three-game sweep.
*The lowest four-game run total by Alabama also came in 1988 when the Tide managed five runs in four games in losses to Florida and UNLV.
*The Crimson Tide was swept by the Gators in Tuscaloosa, including a pair of shutouts (L 2-1, L 6-0, L 4-0) and then lost to UNLV (L 6-4) in Las Vegas.
HOMEBODIES
*Alabama will play 23 of its first 25 games at home, including all 11 games in the month of February.
*In fact, the Crimson Tide opens the season with a 14-game homestand, before playing its first road game against Southern Miss on March 6, 2007 at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss.
*The only other road game is a March 14, 2007 trip to Birmingham to face the Samford Bulldogs at Joe Lee Griffin Field on the Samford campus.
*Bama is home for the first six weekends of the regular season as they host Georgia State (Feb. 9-11), Canisius (Feb. 16-18), Villanova (Feb. 23-25), McNeese State (March 2-4),
Nebraska (March 9-11) and Tennessee (March 16-18).
*Alabama does not play its first weekend road series until March 23-25, 2007 when the Crimson Tide travels to Oxford, Miss., to face the Ole Miss Rebels.
OFFENSE SHOWS IMPROVEMENT
*The main reason for Alabama’s early season success is a much improved offensive attack.
*While the Crimson Tide has struggled on offense during its last three games -- 10 runs and 25 hits -- the unit as a whole has been the most productive in years.
*Alabama’s current batting average (.323) is the highest at this point in the season since 2000 (.333). The Crimson Tide’s current average is 60 points higher than this time last year.
*Alabama’s 14 home runs are the most through 16 games since 2004 (15) and the 112 RBI are the most through 16 games since 2000 (129).
*The Crimson Tide has scored 124 runs in 16 games, an average of 7.75 per game this season. The run totals and average runs per game are the highest 16-game totals since the 2003 season.
*Alabama has collected 182 hits in 16 games this season, an average of 11.4 hits per game. The total number of hits and average number of hits are also the highest since 2003.
*Alabama is hitting 60 points higher this season than in 2006. The Crimson Tide’s production has increased by 1.6 runs and 2.8 hits per game this season.
*Below is a look at Alabama’s 16-game totals from 2000-07.
ALABAMA STATS COMPARISON
Year Avg.-HR-RBI
2007 .323-14-112
2006 .263-113-93
2005 .307-10-91
2004 .283-15-99
2003 .321-21-133
2002 .299-17-105
2001 .303-18-100
2000 .333-20-129
*Below is a look at Alabama’s runs and hits per game averages through 16 games from 2000-07.
ALABAMA STATS COMPARISON
Year Runs Hits
2007 7.8 11.4
2006 6.2 8.6
2005 6.8 10.3
2004 6.6 9.3
2003 9.8 10.9
2002 6.9 9.9
2001 6.8 10.4
2000 8.8 11.6
*Below is a look at Alabama’s statistical comparison from 2006 and 2007.
ALABAMA STATS COMPARISON
Category 2007 2006
Record 12-4 13-3
Batting Avg. .323 .263
Runs/Game 7.8 6.2
Hits/Game 11.4 8.6
Doubles 30 19
Triples 7 7
Home Runs 14 13
RBI 112 93
Base on Balls 72 82
Strikeouts 78 95
Hit Batters 16 13
SB-SBA 32-39 21-31
Innings Pitched 147.0 144.0
ERA 2.94 2.19
Runs Allowed/Game 3.6 3.0
Hits Allowed/Game 7.6 7.4
Base on Balls 40 36
Strikeouts 144 136
Opponents Avg. .223 .219
Fielding Pct. .965 .956
Errors 22 28
Double Plays 13 8
STRUGGLING OF LATE
*Alabama has hit just .148 (9-for-61) in its two losses this week to Southern Miss and Tennessee Tech.
*The Crimson Tide was nearly no-hit in a 5-0 loss at No. 26 Southern Miss on March 6 in Pearl.
*USM freshman right-hander Todd McInnis came within four outs of a no-hitter before UA senior center fielder Emeel Salem broke up the no-hit bid with a two-out infield single in the eighth inning.
*Alabama managed only seven hits in its 8-6 loss to Tennessee Tech on March 7. The Crimson Tide trailed 5-0 after one inning but tied the game at 6-6 with four runs in the sixth inning. Tech scored twice in the seventh to take the lead and win the game.
*Salem and Rhoden are 5-for-15 (.333) in those two losses, while the rest of the club is just 4-for-46 (.087).
*Including its extra inning win against McNeese State on March 4, Alabama is batting .181 (17-for-94) and has managed just 10 runs in the last three games.
*Again, Salem and Rhoden lead the way going a combined 6-for-20 (.300) in the last three games, while the rest of the team is 11-for-74 (.149).
