An A-Day For the Record Books

TUSCALOOSA, AL| Saying that Alabama fans are passionate about their football team is like saying Phillip Fulmer likes to super size his value meal...everybody knows it. That said, what happened at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday had never been done before anywhere in the world.

Over 92,138 Crimson fans piled into the stadium to watch the Crimson Tide's spring football game and it could have been a much larger crowd. Alabama officials began turning away fans at the gate in the 2nd quarter of the game as all the seats were full and the University did not have the staff to accommodate such a crowd. The attendance shattered any other spring football game attendance record ever recorded across the nation.

According to Alabama, the next closest was Tennessee in their 1986 spring game when 73,000 Vol fans were in attendance. The record crowd was treated to a welcome sight as well, an Alabama team that was well disciplined, played smart, played hard, and most importantly played well.

The differences were noticeable to the all in attendance from the moment the team began to warm up. They looked organized, focused, and ready to perform. Senior WR D.J. Hall was named the game's MVP as he finished with 5 receptions for 87 yards, and 1 touchdown. Starting QB John Parker Wilson had a productive day as well as he finished 18-36, with 242 yards and two touchdowns.

Backup QB Greg McElroy turned a few heads as well as he finished 14-33, for 139 yards and a touchdown. While the team played well, the crowd was the real story and it did not go unappreciated by the players and their new coach.

"It shows the passion that people have for the University of Alabama, and it certainly makes me feel good about being here as head coach. What we did today sends a message that there's a lot of support and enthusiasm for what's happening here right now. I certainly appreciate it. It makes me and my family feel good about being here. God knows we went through a little bit to get here, but we're happy to be here." Saban said after the game.

QB John Parker Wilson agreed. "It was awesome, we were standing around there like, Man, there's a lot of people here. We didn't expect that many people. To see that kind of support just makes us feel good." Wilson stated.

There is no doubt that Saturday was a historic and all around great day for the Alabama football program. The only thing Tide fans can hope for now is that the good times continue to roll into the 2007 season.

Tide Travels to Plains to Battle Auburn

The Alabama baseball team travels to Auburn, AL this weekend for a three game set against their in state rival, the Auburn Tigers. Both teams are in need of a series win as Auburn enters the series at 25-15 overall, but only 4-11 in the SEC, which puts them in the league cellar.

Alabama enters the series at 26-16 overall, and 7-8 in the SEC, which at the moment is good enough for 7th place overall in the league. The top 8 teams make it to the SEC Baseball Tournament in May.

A complete series preview is availabe at the following link: Bama-AU Series Preview

NATIONAL CHAMPS!!!!!!!

The University of Alabama racquetball team brought home another championship recently. The Crimson Tide competed in the national tournament on March 27 on the Arizona State campus and won its third national team title in four years. The Tide also won the team title in 2004 and 2005.

The Alabama racquetball team has only been in existence since 2003 and has already won two national titles. The team was formed by Natalie Crockett. Before the team formed, she was in charge of a racquetball camp the University hosted every year in June, which brought in some of the best junior players in the country.

“The kids would come here every year to the University [for the camp] and they just got a nice feel for the place and a lot of them wanted to come here [to college]," Crockett said. “It just seemed like the natural thing to do."

Soon, these elite junior players expressed interest in forming a team. So Crockett organized a team and they started to compete. The first national tournament the team attended was in Los Angeles in 2004. The Tide won the overall national title in their first year.

They Tide won again in 2005 and barely lost the title last year, losing by just one match. This year the Tide won the title by approximately 1000 points. The last three years the tournament has been held on Arizona State University Campus in March with 44 colleges and universities attending.

The team consists of six men and six women players. Each player is seeded one through six and there are also three doubles teams for women and men. In the Tide’s recent national tournament, all six members on the men’s side advanced to the championship matches. Team members include nationally ranked players, as well as players recruited from The University.

We are sorry this story was not brought to you sooner, but we had no idea there was a national title for collegiate racquetball.

Tide Host Jags in Mid Week Showdown

The Alabama baseball team hopes to build on its two game winning streak on Wednesday night as they host the South Alabama Jaguars in a mid-week game at 6:30 pm. South Alabama, a well respected, successful program over the years, has had an up and down season thus far and enters the game 18-16, after a 20-3 win over Nichols State on Tuesday night, snapping a three game losing streak.

Offense has not been the problem for the Jaguars this season as they entered Tuesday's game hitting .284 as a team, but the pitching staff entered the game with a team ERA of 5.19, with opponents hitting .301 against the Jags. South Alabama is led by 1B Jeff Cunningham, who is hitting .308 with 13 HRs, and 36 RBIs. David Doss, the third baseman, leads the team in hitting with a .366 average, with 4 HRs and 28 RBIs.

Alabama will send Casey Kebodeaux (3-2, 3.86) to the mound in the contest and needs a good outing from him to help protect the thin pitching staff. Coach Jim Wells on his pitching staff, "I hope Casey can go as long as possible. We'd like to rest our other pitchers, especially Tommy Hunter and Austin Hyatt as much as we can. But everyone will be available if necessary."

Alabama will travel to Auburn, AL for a three game series this weekend at Plainsman Park against their in state rival, the Auburn Tigers.

Women's Sports RoundUp

Softball


The # 2 ranked Alabama softball team dominated the Mercer Bears on Tuesday night in a home away from home, in front of 1,400 in a ballpark designed to hold 200 in Oxford, AL winning 9-0. Alabama coach Patrick Murphy was blown away by the crowd, "Is this the World Series in Oklahoma City or Oxford? This is amazing. What a great night for us. It was a lot like the World Series, with all the distractions. There were all the fans behind us and a big crowd in front of us." Alabama hit back to back home runs in the 2nd inning to go up 4-0 and added two more runs in the third, and three runs in the fourth to bring the mercy rule into play with Dani Woods 2-run single to make it 9-0. Starting pitcher Blair Potter (12-0) cruised through four innings only giving up one hit and striking out six batters. Tide ace Chrissy Owens threw 10 pitches to get the final three outs for the Crimson Tide. Alabama improved to 43-4 as they head to Oxford, MS this weekend to take on the Ole Miss Rebels.


Gymastics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama Gymnastics team, advancing to its 25th consecutive NCAA Championships, was informed today that it will compete in the afternoon session of the preliminary day of competition held next week in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Alabama, the NCAA Central Region Champions, will see plenty of familiar faces in the very tough afternoon session that will get underway at Thursday, April 26 at 1 p.m. MT. Southeastern Conference foes Florida and Georgia, ranked first and second at the end of the regular season, will join the Tide, ranked No. 3 nationally.

Oklahoma, which Alabama saw to open the season and at last Saturday’s Tuscaloosa-based regional will join the SEC trio. Nebraska, ranked sixth going into regionals, and Oregon State round out the afternoon session.

“I think when you get to the NCAA Championships, any draw that you get is going to be tough,” Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. “I told the ladies today that we don’t need to be looking over our shoulders because we’ve seen Georgia and Florida numerous times this year and we’ve seen Oklahoma twice.”

Host school Utah will be joined in the evening session, which gets underway at 7 p.m. MT on Thursday, by UCLA, Michigan, Stanford, LSU and Denver. The sessions were decided by a random draw, with three winners and three second place teams from the six regionals going into each session.

“I feel that we have seen the best teams in the country and we just have to go out the first day and focus on our own performance and not on anyone else,” Patterson said. “I think that will be key.”

The top three teams from both of Thursday’s sessions will advance to the NCAA Super Six Team Finals on Friday night.

Auburn junior Julie Dwyer will rotate with the Crimson Tide on Thursday after qualifying as an all-arounder.

Alabama also learned they will start on the floor exercise in the afternoon session and then advance to the vault before taking a bye. The Tide will finish up on the uneven bars and balance beam before sitting off the floor on a bye for the last rotation.

“Is there any other rotation for us at the national championships?” Patterson said with a laugh. “It seems like that’s all we every draw. We’ve done it a lot and we’ve done really well ending on beam. It’s just ironic that’s where we draw again.”

Alabama won its 22nd NCAA Regional Championship Saturday with a 196.700. The Tide’s 25 consecutive NCAA Championship appearances is matched only by Utah, which has been to all 26 NCAA Championships. The Crimson Tide has won four NCAA titles – 2002, 1996, 1991 and 1988. The Tide’s first title, in 1988, came in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A Little Hokie Love

As a native of the Commonwealth of Virginia and having numerous friends that attend Virginia Tech, I just wanted to send my condolences to those affected by the tragedy on Tech's campus Monday. The University of Alabama has you in our thoughts and prayers and wishes Virginia Tech only the best in the near future.

Also, a very classy move by the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night sporting VT lids in their game against the Atlanta Braves. While the Nats roster reminds us of the one in "Major League" (you have never heard of most of them), and they are almost certain to finish in last place, it was a very classy move on their part. Go Nats.

For those reading this article in Richmond, VA, Disco Sports will be selling T-shirts that read "Hokie Nation" for $10 later this week with all the proceeds going to a fund set up in the honor of the victims at Virginia Tech.

Tide Downs Dawgs 5-3, Wins Series 2-1

It was a series that Alabama needed to win to keep pace in the SEC standings and the Crimson Tide got it done as they defeated Georgia in the rubber game of a 3 game series Sunday, 5-3. After dropping the series opener 4-1 on Friday night, Alabama responded with a bottom of the 9th comeback win on Saturday,7-6, and did just enough to defeat Georgia on Sunday. Winning close games is a welcome sight for Jim Wells' club.

“Finding a way to win the close games is huge," said Crimson Tide reliever Tommy Hunter, who came on in the eighth inning in relief of starer Austin Hyatt. “We hadn’t been doing that all year and now in the last four games, we’ve won like three close games so maybe that will be a trend."

Alabama fell behind immediately as Georgia’s Ryan Paisel led off the game with a single and Bulldog shortstop Gordon Beckham followed with a home run off Hyatt that put Georgia up 2-0.
“Everything [Hyatt] was throwing early was up and [Beckham] got a ball up in the wind," Wells said. “But Austin settled down, just like he did last weekend and really pitched well." Hyatt worked into the seventh inning and didn’t allow Georgia another run, as Alabama came back gradually.

The Crimson Tide scored one run in the bottom of the first inning as Emeel Salem led off with a double, then scored on Brandon May’s single. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Alabama took the lead with two more runs against Georgia starter Dean Weaver. Brandon Belcher had a sacrifice fly for one of the RBIs in the inning, while Greg Paiml delivered a two-out RBI single to give Alabama a lead it would not subsequently relinquish.

Alabama appeared to have the opportunity to blow the game open in the seventh inning, when it loaded the bases with no outs. Alex Avila then singled in two runs, giving UA a 5-2 lead, but the rally stopped there.

It appeared that Alabama might regret not getting the insurance runs when Georgia loaded the bases with one out in the top of the eighth inning. But Alabama reliever Lane Shoup coaxed a ground ball to the mound out of Georgia’s Myles Starr, retiring the runner at the plate on a fielder’s choice. Hunter then came on and retired Paisel to end the inning.

In the ninth inning, Hunter struck out Beckham but then gave up a single, a walk and an RBI single by Matt Olson. An error by Tide third baseman Jake Smith resulted in a bases-loaded, one-out situation, but Hunter struck out Georgia’s Luke Stewart and Joey Lewis to end the game. Hyatt (4-1) was credited with the decision.

The win moved the Alabama to 7-8 in Southeastern Conference play, good for seventh place in the league standings midway through the conference race. UA is 22-15 overall. Georgia fell to 13-23 overall and 5-10 in SEC play.

Alabama will be back in action on Wednesday, hosting South Alabama.