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.

Softball Downs Georgia in SEC Tourney

Alabama needed extra innings to down the #6 seed Georgia Bulldogs on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the SEC Softball Tournament, but got it done and defeated Georgia 3-2 in 9 innings.

Trailing 2-0 until the 6th, Alabama came back to tie the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the 9th inning when Sophomore Kelli Eubanks led off the inning with a double. Katie Johnson then moved pinch runner Mallory Benak to third with a sac bunt, and Brittany Rogers singled up the middle to score the game winning run.

Senior Blair Potter got the start for Alabama and pitched a solid five innings only surrendering two runs on five hits and collected three strikeouts. Chrissy Owens came on in the sixth and pitched three scoreless innings and collected the win. She improved to 24-3 on the season with the victory.

Alabama, the 3 seed, meets # 2 seed LSU today at 5pm in Auburn, AL.

#1 Ranked Softball Readies for SEC Tournament

The #1 ranked Alabama softball team earned the # 3 seed in the SEC Tournament starting Thursday and will play the first game of the tournament against the 6th seed Georgia Bulldogs. Alabama was tied for 1st in the SEC last week, but fell to third after dropping two games to top seed Tennessee this past weekend.

The top eight teams make the tournament and this year Auburn, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky did not make the field. The tournament will be held at Jane B. Moore Field in Auburn, AL.


The Tournament bracket is as follows:

2007 SEC Softball Tournament:

Thursday, May 10
Game 1 - # 3 Alabama vs. # 6 Georgia 11 a.m. CT
Game 2 - # 2 LSU vs. # 7 South Carolina 1:30 p.m. CT
Game 3 - # 4 Florida vs. # 5 Mississippi State 5 p.m. CT
Game 4 - # 1 Tennessee vs. # 8 Ole Miss 7:30 p.m. CT

Friday, May 11
Game 5 - G1 winner vs. G2 winner 5 p.m. CT
Game 6 - G3 winner vs. G4 winner 7:30 p.m. CT

Saturday, May 12
Game 7 - G5 winner vs. G6 winner 12:00 p.m. [FSN South]

Baseball Rolls Past Gators on Sunday, Drops Series

It took a little longer for Alabama to put Florida away on Sunday, but they finally got it done. After blowing a four run lead, the Crimson Tide avoided a three game sweep at the hands of the Gators with a extra inning 7-5 win. Tyler Odle hit his first career home run for the Tide in the 10th inning, on a two run blast that put Jim Wells club in front for good.

Odle had gone 0-4 on the afternoon with two strikeouts before the big blast. "I had not had a good day at the plate, so I was just looking for a good pitch to hit. It was a fastball, middle-in and I got a good swing on the ball. This was a big win." said Odle.

It certainly was a much needed win for Alabama after dropping Friday and Saturday's games to the Gators 6-2 and 9-3 respectively. With the win Alabama now finds itself eighth in the SEC standings with 6 games remaining in the regular season. Eight of the twelve SEC teams make the SEC Tournament later this month in Hoover, AL.

Alabama host the # 8 Arkansas Razorbacks this weekend. Arkansas is currently 36-14 overall and 16-8 in the SEC. A full preview of the series will be provided later in the week.