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.