Baseball Begins 2016 SEC Baseball Tournament with Eighth-Seeded Kentucky
5/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 23, 2016
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama heads to Hoover, Ala., for the start of the 2016 SEC Baseball Tournament, entering the week-long event as the No. 9 seed. The Tide will face off with eighth-seeded Kentucky in Tuesday's single-elimination game. The Crimson Tide and Wildcats will square off at 4:30 p.m. CT at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. The matchup will air live on the SEC Network with Dave Neal and Gabe Gross in the booth, while Laura Rutledge works from the field.
LEADING OFF
- Kentucky is coming off a Thursday through Saturday in which the Wildcats took two of three games from Missouri to secure a spot in the SEC Tournament as the No. 8 seed. The Tigers won the first game of the series on Thursday, but UK bounced back for wins in the final two games. Prior to the series win over Mizzou, Kentucky defeated Murray State, 4-1, on Tuesday in a final non-conference matchup.
- Alabama and Kentucky will meet for the 98th time on Tuesday in a series that dates back to 1925. The Crimson Tide owns the all-time advantage, 58-39, and holds a 4-3 mark in neutral site contests with all seven games coming in the SEC Tournament.
- The Crimson Tide will look to junior right-hander Nick Eicholtz in the opening-round matchup. Eicholtz owns a 3-3 record across his 11 starts and has maintained a 2.25 ERA (15 ER/60.0 IP). The junior faced off with Kentucky earlier this season, earning the win after tossing a career-long 7.2 innings and allowing only one run on three hits and a walk with three strikeouts. He retired the first nine batters he faced before giving up a single, and also had a streak of eight straight sat down in the series finale against the Wildcats.
- The Wildcats will counter with sophomore left-hander Zach Logue in the single-elimination contest. Logue has made 16 appearances in 2016, eight of which have been starts, and sports a 2.25 ERA (13 ER/44.2 IP). He has struck out 36 compared to 13 walks and is limiting opposing hitters to a .241 average.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
UA - Nick Eicholtz (Jr., RHP) vs. UK - Zach Logue (So., LHP)
ALABAMA IN THE SEC TOURNAMENT
- In its storied history, Alabama baseball has now made 33 SEC Tournament appearances all-time. In those trips to the conference tournament, the Crimson Tide owns a 56-52 (.519) all-time mark.
- At the Hoover Met, UA holds a 36-23 (.610) mark with four postseason titles in 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2003.
- Alabama has claimed seven tournament titles overall with the most recent championship coming in 2003.
- Including the Tide's 2016 appearance in Hoover, Alabama has reached the tournament six times under head coach Mitch Gaspard. Gaspard's tournament teams own an 8-8 overall mark.
- Tuesday afternoon's matchup between the Crimson Tide and Wildcats will mark the eighth meeting between the two in the conference's postseason tournament.
- Alabama owns the all-time advantage, 4-3, and holds a 4-2 mark in games played at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
SCOUTING ALABAMA
- Alabama heads to Hoover after finishing the regular season with a midweek win over Samford on Tuesday and then falling to South Carolina on the weekend across three games.
- Game one went to South Carolina, 6-4, on Thursday evening. The Gamecocks built a 4-0 advantage before the Tide put up a four-spot in the top of the fifth to make things even. SC was able to add two more in the sixth to take a lead and eventually the win. The Tide offense was highlighted by Cobie Vance and Keith Holcombe, with the 1-2 hitters each going 2-for-4 with a run scored and one walk. Vance added his third home run of the season and a pair of RBI to pace Alabama, while Holcombe added his first career double.
- The Tide fell behind early and battled back, but the comeback effort fell short as Alabama suffered a 6-4 loss to SC on Friday. UA went down 4-0 early, but rallied to put together a four-run fifth and make things even. South Carolina notched a pair of runs in the sixth to take the 6-4 lead, the eventual final.
- Saturday's regular-season finale was a back-and-forth contest that finished in favor of the Gamecocks, 9-7. The two teams went back and forth, responding to one another with runs at nearly every opportunity. Alabama took a 4-3 lead after three innings, but SC would answer throughout the game for the series sweep. The Crimson Tide scored one in the fifth then one apiece in the seventh and eighth, but came up short by day's end. The Tide's 1-4 hitters batted a combined .530 (9-17) with a double, one home run, six RBI, six runs scored and one stolen base. Chandler Taylor finished 2-for-5 with a home run, one run scored, a stolen base and a team-high tying three RBI. Also contributing three RBI was Georgie Salem, who went 3-for-5 with a double and added one run. Holcombe finished with a career-high three runs scored, while Vance led the Tide with two walks and added a 1-for-3 day that included a run scored.
- The top of the lineup led the Crimson Tide offense for the week. The top four hitters were also the top four in the order in Holcombe, Vance, Salem and Taylor. The foursome batted .412 (28-68) with four doubles, four home runs, 16 RBI, 16 runs scored, eight walks and four stolen bases. Each hitter recorded at least six hits and three runs scored.
- Those four hitters contributed eight of the 10 extra-base hits, 16-of-20 RBI and 16 of the 21 total runs scored. They also added all four of the team's stolen bases over the week.
- Alabama returned home this season after spending 2015 on the road. The Tide played a total of 34 "home" games across the state of Alabama on top of the 22 road contests slotted into the schedule. Thirty of the team's home games were played at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover. The Crimson Tide also played a weekend series at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile and a single game inside Joe W. Davis Municipal Stadium in Huntsville.
- In addition to the "home" contests, UA also traveled to Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery for the annual MAX Capital City Classic against Auburn, and then to Regions Field in Birmingham for an away game with UAB.
- Alabama's roster features 21 letterwinners from the 2015 squad that reached the quarterfinals of the 2015 SEC Tournament. The 2016 Tide returns five positional starters, and five pitchers who made five or more career starts
SERIES HISTORY - KENTUCKY
- Alabama and Kentucky will meet for the 98th time on Tuesday in a series that dates back to 1925.
- The Crimson Tide owns the all-time advantage, 58-39, and holds a 4-3 mark in neutral site contests with all seven games being played in the SEC Tournament.
- Alabama won the first four pairings in 1925, part of a five-game winning streak to start the series.
- The two teams squared off earlier this season from April 8-10, with the Wildcats taking the first two games of the weekend for the series. Alabama bounced back for a win on Sunday to avoid the sweep.
AT KENTUCKY - APRIL 8-10
- Alabama traveled to Kentucky, dropping two of three games across the weekend in Lexington.
- Game one against the Wildcats finished in favor of Kentucky, 3-2, despite a strong start from Geoffrey Bramblett. The junior starter worked 8.0 innings and struck out a season-high nine batters for the Tide. Bramblett allowed three runs on five hits with a walk and retired 11 straight form the second inning through the fifth. A single in the fifth broke the streak and then an infield error put two in scoring position before a wild pitch and a bases-clearing double scored three for the Wildcats.
- Kentucky walked it off with a ninth-inning grand slam to claim the series with a 6-2 win in game two of the series. The Wildcats loaded the bases in the ninth with no outs before the Tide made a pitching change. The UA reliever recorded a strikeout for the first out before giving up a grand slam to end the game. Jake Walters worked 5.1 innings of one-run baseball, giving up five hits and walking three while striking out five.
- Alabama took game three thanks to a standout start from junior right-hander Nick Eicholtz. The Tide's starter tossed a career-long 7.2 innings, allowing only one run on three hits with a walk and three strikeouts for his second win of the season. He retired the first nine batters faced before giving up a single, and then followed that with a streak of eight straight sat down before issuing a walk. Eicholtz recorded the first two outs of the eighth before turning the ball over to Thomas Burrows. The junior closer allowed two hits in the eighth, but bounced back with a 1-2-3 ninth that featured a pair of strikeouts for his seventh save of the year.
ON DECK
A win over Kentucky would advance Alabama to the double-elimination round of the SEC Tournament, with the Tide's second game scheduled against the top-ranked team on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. CT. A loss to the Wildcats would end the Crimson Tide's Tournament run, with UA then awaiting a possible NCAA postseason berth.
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