Baseball to Host Samford on Tuesday Evening
3/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama returns home for a single game against in-state foe Samford University inside Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs are set for a 6:30 p.m. CT first pitch on SECN+.
FOLLOW THE TIDE
Fans can watch/follow this weekend's games via the below outlets:
Gametracker: RollTide.com
Listen: 99.1 FM
Web: SEC Network+
Twitter: @AlabamaBSB
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
UA - Jake Walters (Fr., RHP) vs. SAM - Tristan Widra (Fr., RHP)
LEADING OFF
? Alabama and Samford have met 108 times in the past, with the Tide owning the all-time series record, 93-15. Most recently, the Crimson Tide claimed two wins against the Bulldogs last season.
? Samford comes to Hoover after losing two of three to Jacksonville University this past weekend. Prior to that, the Bulldogs shutout Auburn, 7-0, in a Tuesday contest with the Tigers.
? Alabama will throw right-handed freshman Jake Walters in Tuesday's game. Walters will be making his first start of the season and fourth overall appearance. He owns a 1-0 record with a 3.86 ERA (2 ER/4.2 IP) and has recorded five strikeouts.
? Samford will send out freshman right-hander Tristan Widra. The first-year player has yet to start a contest in 2015, but has made six total appearances. He owns a 2.79 ERA (3 ER/9.2 IP) and has struck out nine batters in the process.
? The Crimson Tide is 8-3 overall at home this season and 6-2 overall inside the Hoover Met. Alabama played a three-game, weekend series against Lipscomb from March 6-8 at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile that counted as a home game for UA. In that series, Alabama claimed the first and third contests on the weekend.
? Alabama is 2-1 overall in Tuesday contests. The Tide's first Tuesday game came in the form of a Feb. 24 doubleheader with Savannah State. In that twinbill, UA claimed 7-2 and 4-2 wins in game one and two, respectively. The next game for Alabama was the annual Capital City Classic at Montgomery's Riverwalk Stadium. In that game, Alabama fell 5-3 to in-state rival Auburn. UA's most recent Tuesday set was postponed due to rain, when the Tide and Alabama A&M Bulldogs were rained out.
? Tuesday's promotion is once again "Two for One Tuesday's". Fans can purchase one general admission ticket and get a second ticket free.
SCOUTING ALABAMA
? The Crimson Tide comes into Tuesday's game with Samford after a weekend in which the Tide took two of three games from 13th-ranked Mississippi State in Starkville. Prior to the weekend series, Alabama's Tuesday doubleheader with Alabama A&M was postponed due to rain, with a makeup date still to be determined.
? Alabama and Mississippi State were forced to play a doubleheader on Saturday after Friday's game was rained out. In the first contest inside Dudy Noble, Alabama put together an eight-run eighth inning to claim the 10-5 win. With two outs, four singles, a home run and two HBP aided the huge inning and eventual victory.
? In game two, the Crimson Tide was unable to string together consecutive hits against the State starter, who would go on to pitch a complete game for the Bulldogs. Alabama's lone run of the day came on Casey Hughston's solo home run in the sixth inning.
? The Crimson Tide would claim the rubber match of the series, once again exploding in the eighth inning, this time for four runs. Alabama evened up the game at 4-4 in the seventh and then ballooned its lead in the eighth thanks to a bases-loaded rally that ended with a Mikey White single to add the fourth and final run of the inning.
? After the weekend's late rallies, the Crimson Tide has now scored 46 of its 111 total runs, or 41 percent, from the seventh inning on. In contrast, Alabama has limited opponents to just 28 total runs in those final three frames.
? UA is tied for third in the SEC in doubles (41), including 10 from Casey Hughston and eight from Mikey White.
? Hughston highlights the UA offense. The sophomore leads the SEC in batting average (.457) and doubles, while ranking second in RBI (22), total bases (55) and slugging percentage (.786)
? Alabama is also receiving a strong offensive effort from White. The junior shortstop is second in the SEC in triples (4), and ranks third in the conference in runs scored (21), while leading Alabama in that category. He is also the team leader with a career-high four triples, while ranking second on the 2015 squad in average (.400), hits (26), doubles (8) and RBI (17).
? UA kicked off the season with a record-setting weekend against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
? Twelve of the Crimson Tide's 40 hits were for extra bases, including 10 doubles and two triples. The Tide finished the weekend batting .360 as a team and accumulating 37 total runs, the most since Alabama scored 38 against the University of Illinois-Chicago on Feb. 26-27, 2010.
? The Alabama offense put together a 19-0 performance in Sunday's finale thanks to 15 hits, including five-RBI performances from Kyle Overstreet and Hughston. Hughston and Overstreet were the first pair of UA players to each record five RBI in the same game since Clay Jones and Brett Booth did it against UIC on Feb. 27, 2010.
? Alabama's starters limited UMES to just six total hits while striking out 19 batters across 19.0 IP for the weekend.
? Alabama returns 23 letterwinners from last season's team that reached the NCAA Tallahassee Regional. The 2015 Tide also features five positional returners, and three pitchers who made five or more starts last season.
SCOUTING SAMFORD
? Samford comes to Hoover after losing two of three to Jacksonville University this past weekend. The Bulldogs claimed the first game, but fell in the final two of the weekend. Prior to that, SU won a Monday contest against Memphis, 8-4, and then a Tuesday game with Auburn, 7-0.
? In game one against JU, Samford trailed heading into the top of the ninth, but a six-run inning helped the Bulldogs secure the win in the series opener.
? The Bulldogs took a late 4-3 lead in the eighth inning of game two, but one run in the bottom half of the inning and another in the bottom of the ninth from Jacksonville evened the series.
? The series finale was an 18-5 blowout by Jacksonville on the power of 20 total hits. Samford got out to an early 4-0 lead after three innings of play, but the Dolphins scored 5, 6, 3, 1 and 3 runs each of the last four innings.
? Samford is batting .259 as a team and has seven players with double-digit hit totals for the season.
? The Bulldogs are led by infielder Hunter Swilling. Across his 16 starts, the sophomore leads the team in nearly every offensive category including: hits (22), doubles (4), triples (2), RBI (18), stolen bases (4) and runs scored (12). Sophomore Heath Quinn is also contributing major numbers to the SU offense. The outfielder has recorded 20 hits, including a team-leading four home runs, while also collecting eight walks to lead SU in that category.
? The pitching staff owns a 6.38 (98 ER/138.1 IP) with 106 strikeouts compared to 70 walks. The Bulldogs have seven relievers that have tallied five or more appearances so far this season. Senior Mark Donham leads the team with eight total appearances. The righty is 2-0 overall and owns a 2.08 ERA (3 ER/13.0 IP) with eight strikeouts.
? Samford finished 2014 with a 35-25 overall record and a 15-12 conference mark to tie for third. The Bulldogs return 19 letterwinners from a season ago while losing 15.
? The Bulldogs had five preseason All-SoCon selections, including four first-team choices. Andres Gracia, Frankie Navarrette, Quinn and Jared Watson all earned first-team nods. The lone second-team member was Alex Ledford.
? SU was selected to finish second in the preseason SoCon Coaches Poll by the league's coaches and third by the media.
SERIES HISTORY
? Alabama and Samford will meet for the 109th time in series history on Tuesday. The series between the in-state schools dates back to 1894 when Samford was still known as Howard College.
? The Crimson Tide owns the all-time series with the Bulldogs, 93-15, including a 2-0 sweep of SU last season.
? The first meeting between the two teams came at the beginning of 1894, Alabama's third years in existence as a baseball program. The Tide claimed a victory in that game, 7-2.
? Last season, Alabama won the first meeting against the Bulldogs on March 11, 12-1. The second contest came at Samford on April 30, with UA coming out on top 9-5 in that game.
WHITE IS WHITE-HOT
? Shortstop Mikey White's play has heated up as we head into the warmer months.
? The junior continues to produce for UA, adding four triples and 21 runs scored. His four triples are second in the SEC while his run total slots him at third in the conference.
? In his last 13 contests, he is batting .435 (20-46) with seven doubles, three triples, two home runs, 15 RBI, 16 runs scored, six walks, a HBP and a stolen base.
? The hot streak includes at least one RBI in nine of his last 12 games, including multi-RBI efforts in four of those.
? He collected a seven-game hitting streak from Feb. 22 to March 6. Over that streak, White batted .423 (11-26) with four doubles, three triples, one home run, eight RBI, 12 runs scored, one walk, three HBP and a stolen base.
? White recorded two triples in the 2015 MAX Capital City Classic, marking the first time a Crimson Tide hitter accomplished the feat since Travis Garner did it on May 17, 2003, at Mississippi State.
COLBURN TAKING ADVANTAGE OF HIS TIME
? Junior Riley Colburn earned his first career start in the Friday, March 6 contest at Lipscomb and has started every game since, taking full advantage of his playing time.
? Across his six starts (three vs. Lipscomb and three at Mississippi State), he is batting .350 (7-20) with one double, six RBI, three runs scored, two walks and a stolen base.
? Colburn has recorded a hit in his last five games while playing standout defense for the Crimson Tide.
? Prior to this season's stretch of starts, Colburn saw action in 25 career games, recording two hits, one RBI and four runs, acting primarily as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement in those contests.
COMING UP
Next up for the Tide is a weekend series with fifth-ranked Texas A&M. The Aggies come to Hoover with a perfect 21-0 record after sweeping Auburn this past weekend. Alabama and Texas A&M have met just eight times in the history of the two programs. The Crimson Tide owns the all-time record, 5-3, but the Aggies took two out of three games from Alabama last season in College Station.
