Men's Golf Advances to NCAA Finals

The Alabama men's golf team finished second at the NCAA Central Regional Tournament and will now advance to the NCAA Finals which will be held on May 29-June 2 in Williamsburg, VA. The Crimson Tide finished with a team score of 898 and Alabama’s Michael Thompson finished tied for fourth at 220 after firing a 2-under 70 on Saturday.

Tulsa won the regional at 31-over par 895. The 10 teams that advanced from the regional into the team finals were Tulsa (895), Alabama (898), Louisville (899), Lamar (900), Tennessee (904), Oklahoma State (906), Texas Tech (907), Michigan State (915), Texas (918) and Minnesota (918).

Alabama’s Matthew Swan finished with a 226, Mark Harrell had a 227, Gator Todd a 230 and Joseph Sykora a 235.

It is the second time coach Jay Seawell has taken Alabama to the finals. His 2005 team finished tied for sixth at the NCAA East Regional to advance and finished 28th overall in the NCAA finals at Caves Valley Club in Owings Mills, Md.

It will be the 10th time in school history that Alabama has been to the finals. Its best finish was a tie for third in 1975 when Jerry Pate was a player.

The 30 teams that will be competing for a national championship, 7 are from the SEC, are as follows:

Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, Auburn, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, Duke, East Tennessee State, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Lamar, Louisville, Michigan State, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Southern California, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, Texas Tech, Tulsa, UCLA, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest.

SEC Baseball Tournament Bracket Announced

The 2007 SEC Baseball Tournament is set to begin Wednesday morning at Regions Park (formerly the Hoover Met) in Hoover, AL with the 7th seeded Alabama Crimson Tide and 2nd seeded Arkansas Razorbacks playing in Game 1 at 10 AM. Alabama took two of three from Arkansas two weeks ago in Tuscaloosa and will probably face Roger Clemens Award nominee Nick Schmidt in game one. Alabama defeated Schmidt two weeks ago when he only lasted 3 plus innings making it his shortest outing of the year and giving him his first loss of the season. While Arkansas did earn the 2nd seed they have struggled down the stretch losing their last three SEC series to LSU, Alabama, and Ole Miss.

Alabama's game will be followed by 6th seeded Florida taking on 3rd seed South Carolina. Vanderbilt earned the league's top seed and will play in the third game on Wednesday against rival and 8th seeded Tennessee, who clinched a tournament berth on the last day of the season with a win over Florida. In the night cap, 4th seeded Mississippi State will meet rival and 5th seeded Ole Miss in the last game of the day.

Auburn, Georgia, LSU, and Kentucky were the four SEC teams that did not make the eight team field. It was the first time in 22 years that LSU failed to make the SEC Tournament.

The complete SEC Baseball Tournament bracket can be seen by clicking here: 2007 SEC Tourney

Tide Softball Wins Tuscaloosa Regional

The 5th ranked and top seeded Alabama softball team had their backs against the wall this weekend after a day one loss to Tennessee Tech in the NCAA softball Tuscaloosa Regional. Alabama had to win 4 games in two days to continue their season and they did just that.

After defeating 2nd seeded Cal and 3rd seeded Florida State on Saturday, the Crimson Tide beat 4th seeded Tennessee Tech twice on Sunday to advance to a NCAA Super Regional. Alabama won Sunday's games 19-10 and 7-2 in front of 1,289 enthusiastic fans at the Alabama Softball Complex to advance in the NCAA Tournament.

Blair Potter was the star of the day as she pitched both games throwing 221 pitches, 146 of them strikes, striking out 16 batters in 12 2/3 innings. Potter allowed four earned runs on 12 hits with three walks to run her record to 20-2.

“If I had to throw a few more I think I could do it,” Potter said. “I didn’t expect to start again, but it’s nice to know the coaches think I can to it.

The Crimson Tide offense also pounded the same pitcher that held them to one run in the tournament's first game. Tennessee Tech’s Bonnie Bynum, who had baffled Alabama and California on the tournament’s first two days, gave up 11 runs (eight earned) on eight hits in eight innings with just one strikeout on the final day.

Alabama (54-8) will now travel approximately 2,645 miles to Seattle, WA to take on the PAC 10's Washington Huskies (38-17), who beat Georgia on Sunday to win the Lincoln (Neb.) Regional, for a best-of-three Super Regional. The NCAA is expected to announce today whether the Super Regional will be played Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday in Seattle.

Baseball Wins Series at #20 Miss. State

The Alabama baseball team entered the weekend hoping to play well enough to win at least one game and make the eight team SEC Tourny later this week. Might as well take a road series win over a top 20 team as well.

Alabama (31-24, 15-15) collected the series win over the #20 Mississippi State Bulldogs with a 9-7 win on Sunday in front of 7, 181 fans at Dudly-Noble Field in Starkville, MS.

Junior Will Stroup turned in another quality performance pitching eight plus innings giving up 7 runs surrendering 11 hits, no walks, and collecting five strikeouts.

“The score does not show how the game went," Stroup said after the 126-pitch outing. “I had a balk and we lost a few fly balls in the sun. We basically gave them five runs, but that is part of the game. Things like that happen in baseball. We settled down and got the job done."

Alabama took an early lead with two runs on three hits in the top of the first off MSU starter Josh Johnson. Salem started the inning with a single and stole second base before moving to third base on Belcher’s ground out. Avila and Matthes then followed with back-to-back RBI doubles as Alabama took a 2-0 lead.

The Tide put four runs on the board to knock out Johnson (2-3) in the third. Alex Avila drew a leadoff walk and scored on Bentley’s two-run home run to right-center field. It was the junior’s 12th home run of the season.

“We came out shining the bat from pitch one," Bentley said. “We are a really good team when we get the lead. This was a big win for us today. This gives us three good weekends the past month against three really good teams."

Alabama tied Florida for 6th place in the SEC standings but will enter the tournament as the 7th seed, as Florida owns the tie breaker over Alabama. Jim Wells' bunch will play in game 1 of the SEC Tournament against 2nd seeded Arkansas at 10AM on Wednesday from Regions Park in Hoover, AL.

Baseball Takes Series From # 6 Razorbacks

The Alabama baseball team took down another top 10 opponent this weekend as they won 2 of 3 games from the 6th ranked Arkansas Razorbacks at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The series win puts the Crimson Tide (29-23, 13-14) in 7th place in the SEC, a half game up on Kentucky and LSU and 1 1/2 games up on Tennessee.

Alabama defeated Arkansas 9-5 in the rubber game on Sunday and was led by senior CF Emeel Salem, playing his final game at the Joe. Salem had four hits in the game including a two run homer to break a 4-4 tie in the 6th inning. Junior Will Stroup pitched a complete game for the Crimson Tide.

Arkansas (37-16, 17-10) won Saturday's game 12-5 and pounded out four homers in the contest. Alabama won Friday nights opening game 10-0 behind a dominant pitching performance from Tommy Hunter and big offensive days from Salem and sophomore 3B/DH Alex Avilla.

Alabama now heads to Starkville, MS to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a three game series this week. The games will be starting a day earlier than usual with game one on Thursday. Games 2 and 3 of the series will be played on Friday and Saturday.

A complete overview of SEC Baseball is provided here....The Road to Hoover

Stunned Softball Ready To Host Tuscaloosa Regional

Most teams would be happy to host a NCAA Tournament Regional, but not when you get the 11 seed when you went into last week ranked # 1 in the country. The Alabama softball team was dealt a tough hand yesterday as the NCAA Softball Championship bracket was announced.

“Alabama could easily have been ranked higher," former UCLA and U.S. Olympic catcher Stacey Nuveman, a softball commentator for ESPN, said during the selection telecast. “The first thing I thought about was the SEC conference, and it really seems like they got raked over the coals."

Tide Head Coach Patrick Murphy agreed. “I think Stacey Nuveman said it best," he said. “You look at RPIs, you look at number of wins, the strength of the conference this year, I don’t think anybody saw this coming."

Alabama was not the only team in the SEC with a right to be upset. The Southeastern Conference had three teams rated in the top six at the end of the season, but only top-ranked Tennessee got a good enough seed to host through the super regional round if it advances, and the Lady Vols were seeded fifth despite being ranked No. 1 for much of the season. No. 6 LSU got the 10th seed and was shipped to a regional at Stanford, after they just won the SEC Tournament.

Whinning aside, Alabama can still play its way to Oklahoma City and show the NCAA they made a mistake in its selections by first winning its regional. Alabama, the top seed in the Tuscaloosa Regional, will host Tennessee Tech (48-17) at 6 p.m. in Friday’s first round in the double-elimination event, which runs through Sunday. California (33-30) and Florida State (44-23) will play in Friday’s other first-round game at 3:30 at the Alabama Softball Complex.

Baseball Looking to Roll Over Hogs

The Alabama baseball team will take on another top 10 squad this weekend as they host the # 8 Arkansas Razorbacks in a three game series at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in the season's final home stand.

Arkansas (38-14, 16-8) is currently second overall in the SEC and first in the SEC West and will certainly provide stiff competition for the Tide. The Hogs are led by a stellar pitching staff which includes Friday nights starter, Nick Schmdit (9-1, 2. 69 ERA), Saturday starter Jess Todd, (7-2, 3.07), and Sunday's starter Duke Welker (5-2, 3.50). Offensively, Arkansas is led by Danny "The Hammer" Hamblin, who enters the series hitting .275 with 17 HR, and 51 RBIs and Logan Forsythe, who is hitting .345 with 6 HR, and 42 RBI.

Alabama (27-22, 11-13) enters the series fighting to reach the SEC Tournament. Alabama is currently in 8th place, which is the final spot as 8 out of the league's 12 teams make the tourny. If Alabama can close out the season strong they could shoot up the standings as the 3rd place through 10th place teams are only separated by 3 1/2 games.

Alabama is led offensively by senior CF Emeel Salem, who is hitting .347 with 6 HR and 29 RBIs. Sophomore Alex Avilla leads the Tide with 46 RBIs and 11 HR. The weekend rotation will see sophomore Tommy Hunter (5-4, 4.00 ERA) start on Friday night, sophomore Miers Quigley (4-5, 4.09) getting the ball on Saturday, and converted set up man Will Stroup (1-0, 4.01) starting on Sunday.

Alabama will need to play very well to win this series, as honestly, Arkansas is a better club. The Razorbacks are experienced, talented, and very good this year. While Alabama is much younger than the Hogs, a series win would put the Tide in good position to make the SEC Tournament later this month.