Baseball Series Preview: McNeese St. Cowboys

Crimson Tide Host Cowboys In Weekend Series

# 16 Alabama Crimson Tide host the pride of Lake Charles, LA, the McNeese St. Cowboys, in a three game weekend series starting Friday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

Alabama(9-2) is coming off a 16-0 thrashing of the UAB Blazers Wednesday night and is swinging the bats extremely well through the first 11 games. Alabama is hitting .343 as a team with 12 home runs and 90 RBIs. Sophomore Ryan Rhoden leads the team with a .421 batting average and tied a school record with hits in a game with his 5-5 performance Wednesday against UAB. Sophomore Kent Matthes(.419) and senior Emeel Salem (.405) are also hitting above the .400 make for Jim Wells' club.

McNeese State (2-10) has struggled so far this season with its lone wins coming against Le Moyne College in a series win last weekend. The Cowboys dropped a 8-6 decision to Louisiana-Monroe on Wednesday night. The Cowboys are in a peculiar situation having their head coach, Chad Clement, resign from the head coaching position on February 14th, saying his heart was not in coaching anymore. Leaving in the middle of the season has caused McNeese St. to rearrange its coaching staff in the middle of the year.

Starting pitchers have not been named yet for the series, but 'Bama coach Jim Wells has stated he would like to get All-American Tommy Hunter in the bullpen this weekend, if possible. Wells thinks Hunter would flourish in a closer role and feels a starting rotation of Brandon Belcher, Meirs Quigley, Kasey Kebadeuax and Bernard Robert can win games for the Tide, while using Hunter to shut the door on oppenents late in the game.

The first game is scheduled for Friday night at 6:30 pm CT, with Game 2 slated for Saturday at 4pm, and the series finale on Sunday at 2pm.

Tide Stays Alive With Win Over Rebels

Alabama Keeps Tournament Hopes Alive With Win

Alabama came into this game knowing they had to win to keep pace in the SEC West race and keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive, and they responded with intensity and fire. They also made sure their lone senior, Jermareo Davidson, won his last game in Coleman Coliseum on Senior Night. Alabama moved into a tie with Ole Miss with a 69-58 win Wednesday night. Alabama also moves into a tie with Mississippi State for first place, as they lost to Arkansas tonight, and the Tide has a chance to win at least a share of the SEC Western Division with a win in Starkville on Sunday.

The Crimson Tide, who collected their 20th win of the year with the victory, was led by a balanced attack on offensive led by junior Mykal Riley's 13 points, and got 12 points apiece from Davidson, Alonzo Gee, and Richard Hendrix. Mikhail Torrance, filling in for the injured Ronald Steele, chipped in eight points for Alabama.

Ole Miss (18-11, 7-8) was led by Clearance Sander's 18 point performance with Dwayne Curtis adding 12 points for the Rebels from Oxford, MS. Both teams played tenacious defense and caused both teams to struggle offensively as the lead changed hands several times. In the second half, Alabama finally pulled away by creating points off turnovers and hitting clutch three pointers and its foul shots down the stretch.

Alabama travels to Starkville, MS to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Sunday with the SEC Western Division title on the line. The SEC West...mediocrity at its best.

# 16 Bama Baseball Dominates UAB 16-0

Alabama Beats Blazers in Every Aspect

It was about as perfect as you are going to get in the game of baseball. The offense was potent and the pitching was dominant all day long. The 16th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide completely dominated the UAB Blazers, 16-0, Wednesday afternoon to improve to 9-2 on the year.

Offensively, Alabama pounded out 20 hits and was led by sophomore Ryan Rhoden who went a perfect 5-5 on the day, with 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored. Senior Emeel Salem went 2-2 in the game with multiple walks and sophomore Alex Avilla went 3-5 with a couple of RBIs. Sophomore Kent Matthes continued his RBI streak, now having at least 1 RBI in each of the teams 11 games this season, as he went 1-3 on the afternoon with a run batted in.

The pitching staff was equally as impressive as starter Bernard Robert improved to 1-0 on the season with 5 innings of shutout innings only giving up two hits on the day. Will Stroup tossed three scoreless innings only giving up one hit and striking out four. Brian Griggs tossed a perfect ninth inning to complete the team shutout.

Alabama (9-2) remains at home this weekend to take on the visiting McNeese State Cowboys with the series starting Friday night at 6:30pm CT.

Basketball Preview: Ole Miss

Tide Has "Must Win" Tonight Against Rebels

Alabama has made the NCAA Tournament five straight years. If the Crimson Tide does not win tonight you can kiss any hope of six straight years goodbye. Alabama enters the game at 19-9 overall, 6-8 in the SEC. To have a realistic shot at making the NCAA tournament, Alabama needs to win tonight, at Miss State on Sunday, and a game or two in the SEC Tournament next week. Basically, Mark Gottfried's club has to turn it around starting tonight. One more loss and all hope is out the door, unless the Tide wins the SEC Tournament and we all know that is as likely as Britney Spears staying in rehab for more than 48 hours.

Ole Miss(18-10, 7-7) has won five of its last seven and is currently tied for first with Mississippi State in the SEC West, with the Alabama a game back. The Rebels are coming off a road loss at South Carolina on Saturday, 76-63, and like the rest of the SEC West teams, have struggled on the road. That said, the Rebels were predicted to finish last in the Western division this season and the job first year coach Andy Kennedy has done has been outstanding, and he should be considered for SEC Coach of the Year if the Rebels finish the season strong.

This game should follow a familiar script for the Crimson Tide, meaning if they feed the ball into the paint Ole Miss should not be able to guard Jermareo Davidson and Richard Hendrix. That said, the Tide has not done a great job of that the last few games. Alabama must pick it up on the defensive end to win this, or any game, the rest of the season. Auburn looked like they were running a practice drill on Saturday where there is no defense on the floor and frankly, Auburn is not a good team. Hopefully Alabama can pull this one out and keep its tournament hopes alive.


Nicks Prediction: Alabama 71 Ole Miss 64

Bama Baseball Midweek Game Prevew: UAB Blazers

Blazers Come to "The Joe" For Midweek Game

The # 16 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide baseball team remains at home this Wednesday afternoon as they play their sister school from the Steel City, the UAB Blazers at 3 pm CT at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

Alabama (8-2) went 3-1 last week taking a weekend series from the visiting Villanova Wildcats. The Crimson Tide is hitting .329 as a team in the first 10 games, with 12 home runs and 75 RBIs. Alabama has increased its run production by almost three runs per game and increased its hit production by almost four per game over last season.

UAB (2-5) was swept last weekend by the 14th ranked Arizona State Sun Devils in Tempe, AZ, and was outscored 36-10 in the series. The Blazers are led offensively by Ryan Keddy, who collected three hits in the series finale on Sunday.

Neither team has announced its starting pitcher for the "Business Mans Special" game. The first pitch is scheduled for 3pm CT.

Womens Sports Roundup

It is "Lady's Week" all week on Inside the Tide, which means all ladies get a free weekly subscription. In honor of Lady's Week, we thought we would check in on the female athletes at The Capstone.

GYMNASTICS

The 4th ranked Alabama gymnastics team defeated North Carolina Tar Heels 196.650 to 194.800 Friday night, in front of 9,934 fans at Coleman Coliseum. Junior Terin Humphrey tied her career best to win the all-around with a 39.575, followed by freshman Ricki Lebegern, who scored her third consecutive 39.350 to take second.

Humphrey posted the meets highest score on the vault with a score of 9.900 and on the floor exercise where she tied teammate Morgan Dennis with a 9.925.

Alabama stays at home Friday night against the 8th ranked LSU Tigers at 7:30pm CT at Coleman Coliseum.


Women's Basketball
The Tide women's basketball team ended the regular season on Sunday with a blowout loss to # 7 LSU, 70-27. The Crimson Tide ended the regular season with a 10-19 overall record and a winless 0-14 SEC record. Alabama is obviously the 12th seed in the SEC Tournament and will play Ole Miss (20-8, 9-4) on Thursday in the opening round of the SEC Tourny.

Hopefully this will be the definition of a rebuilding season and Stephany Smith will have a more competitive squad next season.



Softball

The 5th ranked Alabama softball team maintained its perfect record this past weekend winning the Hampton Inn Crimson Classic over #22 NC State, Michigan State, Winthrop, Western Kentucky, and Larry Bird's alma mater, the Indiana State Scyamores.

Alabama improved to 16-0 on the season and won its 3rd tournament championship of the 2007 season. Crimson Classic MVP Lauren Parker is happy with the results so far, "I think we are really coming together and playing as a team and that was the most important thing for us. Coming into the season you just want to see what you can do against other teams and we came in a team and family and that really has helped us a lot", said Parker.

The Crimson Tide travels to Birmingham on Wednesday night to take on the Samford Bulldogs at 6:30 pm CT.

# 19 Bama Baseball Takes Series From 'Nova

Tide Wins Double Header on Saturday to Clinch Series

After dropping Friday nights opening game 5-1 to visiting Villanova, the #19 ranked Alabama baseball team bounced back to take both games in a double header, 5-3 and 11-6, to clinch the series win Saturday afternoon.

The two games took nearly 8 hours to complete and the teams were battling 25-30 mph winds most of the day with gust reaching 50 mph. Alabama(8-2) used a four-run seventh inning to clinch the first game of the double header. Junior first baseman Matt Bentley supplied most of the offense in the nightcap with two hits, three RBI and two runs scored in the nightcap. Sophomore designated hitter Alex Avila had two doubles in the finale, including a two-run double in the sixth that gave the Crimson Tide the lead for good. Austin Hyatt (2-0) picked up the win for Jim Wells' bunch.

The two teams combined for 27 hits in the series finale as the back and forth game was finally put away when Alabama scored twice in both the seventh and eighth innings. Patrick Kelly picked up his first career win for Alabama in relief.

Alabama stays at home this Wednesday night to take on their sister school from the Steel City, the UAB Blazers at 6:30pm CT.