Tide Baseball Team Opens Fall Practice Monday
10/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 19, 2008
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - As the Major League Baseball season wraps up with its annual World Series this week, the University of Alabama baseball teams opens its four-week fall camp on Monday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
The Crimson Tide has been involved in individual drills and weight lifting since September, but hits the field as a full squad for the first time Monday afternoon.
"This is an unusual fall because of the Cuba trip," Alabama head coach Jim Wells said. "This time last year we were finishing team work and this year we are just starting. The team has hit and defended four or five times a week. The pitchers come out and throw. So, the fundamentals of hitting, pitching and defense have been done for 30-plus days. Our goal in the next few weeks is to do team offense, team defense and try to scrimmage three and four times a week and we will do that until the Thanksgiving holiday."
Wells said the individual workouts and having a veteran team allows the Tide to get right to work on Monday, which includes the first of many scrimmages planned this fall.
For the first two weeks, Wells plans to hold four, eight-inning scrimmages with each pitcher throwing two innings each. The first of those eight-inning scrimmages will take place Monday, the first day of drills. Alabama will also scrimmage on Tuesday, Oct. 21, Friday, Oct. 24 and Saturday, Oct. 25 this week. The weekday practices begin at 2 p.m., with the scrimmages taking place around 3:30 p.m. The Saturday practice time will be announced later this week.
Alabama returns three of its four everyday infielders, including sophomore shortstop Josh Rutledge, sophomore second baseman Ross Wilson and junior third baseman Jake Smith, along with junior Brandon May, who has played infield, outfield and DH in his first two years with the Tide.
"The good thing is we have a lot of guys back," Wells said. "The whole team is back position player-wise minus (Matt) Bentley and (Alex) Avila. We probably won't ever have a team like this anymore with all the new rules. We have all of these fifth-year guys that are grandfathered in that came in as small scholarship guys. We have a lot of depth with experience which is good. The majority of the team has gone through what we do at practice for three or four years. So we can go right into fall practice, and feel like we are way ahead of the game."
The outfield returns seniors Alex Kubal, Kent Matthes, Tyler Odle and Ryan Rhoden and added true freshman Taylor Dugas.
"In the outfield, we have Kubal back, along with Matthes, Odle and Rhoden," Wells said. "The freshman is a really good player and he will be able to play this year - Taylor Dugas. He is real good player. We've got our whole outfield back, plus we've added a really good player in Dugas."
Wells said that senior Wes Henderson, junior Clay Jones and freshman Matt Bacca are working at first base this fall, while seniors Kyle Moore and Vin DiFazio and Jones are battling for the starting job behind the plate.
On the mound, the Tide returns eight pitchers from last year's team and has added a good mix of junior college transfers and freshmen that should make for an improved staff.
"Going into the fall, we are going to try and make (Austin) Graham, (David) Head, (Austin) Hyatt, (Jimmy) Nelson and (Miers) Quigley starters," Wells added. "The first two weeks everybody will throw the same (number of innings). They have all improved. Now we run them out there. We have guys back form last year, and we've added some guys that I really think will help us."
Wells said the goals of the fall are for the hitters to cut down on strikeouts, to play better defense and for the pitchers to throw more strikes.
"I think we need to be better defensively, cut back on the strikeouts, and I think we will do that. Now will we fill up the zone and compete on the mound? I think with the guys being older, plus the infusion of these new guys, gives us chance there too."
