Alabama Welcomes UAB to Sewell-Thomas Stadium on Tuesday to Begin Five-Game Homestand
4/10/2017 5:43:00 PM | Baseball
The Crimson Tide and Blazers will meet for the 74th time in series history on Tuesday night
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama begins a five-game homestand on Tuesday evening with a single midweek contest against in-state foe UAB. The pairing will be the second matchup this season, with the two teams meeting previously on March 21 in Birmingham. The Crimson Tide and Blazers are slated for a 6 p.m. CT first pitch on Tuesday evening at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The game will air live on SEC Network+ with the duo of Eli Gold and Lance Cormier calling all the action.
FOLLOW THE TIDE
Fans can follow Tuesday's game via the below outlets:
Watch: SEC Network+
Listen: 102.9 FM / CTSN / TuneIn App
Twitter: @AlabamaBSB
Live Stats: RollTide.com
LEADING OFF
• UAB comes to Tuscaloosa with a 16-16 overall record, including an 11-9 mark in non-conference play. The Blazers went 1-2 this past weekend in Birmingham against Marshall. UAB fell prior to that to Jacksonville State, 12-6, on Tuesday of last week. The Blazers are 2-8 across their last 10 matchups.
• Alabama and UAB will meet for the 74th time overall in the series that dates back to 1974. The Crimson Tide holds the all-time advantage, 49-24, and is 27-9 when playing at home. The Tide took down the Blazers, 4-1, in Birmingham earlier this season in the first game of the home-and-home between the two Alabama schools. In 2016, the Blazers visited Sewell-Thomas Stadium on April 12, with UA claiming a 7-6 win. The Tide scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth to secure the victory in Tuscaloosa.
• The Crimson Tide's starter is still to be announced.
• The Blazers will use sophomore left-hander Matthew Calvert. The start will be Calvert's first of the season, with the southpaw making seven total appearances prior to his Tuesday start. Calvert has not factored into a decision thus far and owns an 8.10 ERA (6 ER/6.2 IP) with six strikeouts compared to only two walks.
• Tuesday's game will be another "Taco Tuesday" at The Joe. Fans can purchase a game ticket and a pass to the Third Base Patio to take part in the Tide's taco bar. The midweek pairing will also be "Young Professionals of Tuscaloosa Night," welcoming all young professionals affiliated with the Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
UA – TBA vs. UAB – Matthew Calvert (So., LHP)
SCOUTING ALABAMA
• The Crimson Tide fell in all four contests this past week, first suffering a 12-11 loss in a wild game at Troy on Tuesday before falling in three straight games at Ole Miss on the weekend.
• Alabama opened at Ole Miss with a 7-2 loss on Friday evening in front of 8,456 fans at Swayze Field. The Crimson Tide was able to strike early with one run in the top of the first, using a leadoff walk and two wild pitches to get a man into scoring position before scoring him two outs later. Alabama then led off the second with a single, and another wild pitch but a Tide runner in scoring position, but UA was unable to bring him across.
• Ole Miss starter James McArthur would not allow another Alabama baserunner to move past first the rest of the night and went on to retire the final 10 batters he faced before his outing was over.
• The Tide suffered a 5-4 loss on Saturday, as a ninth-inning, solo home run to left by Ole Miss helped the Rebels walk it off against Alabama. UA scored one run apiece in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings, but the Rebels tallied one in the fourth and put up a three-spot in the sixth to even things up at 4-4. The two teams would remain scoreless until the bottom of the ninth when a walkoff home run from Tate Blackman ended the game in favor of Ole Miss.
• Alabama fell, 8-2, at Ole Miss on Sunday afternoon. UA battled all afternoon, reaching runners in seven of the nine innings and putting runners in scoring position in four of those frames, but came up just short by day's end. The Tide offense received multi-hit games from Hunter Alexander, who finished 3-for-4 with an RBI, one run scored and a walk, and Gene Wood, who wrapped up his day 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.
• Alabama and Troy traded leads eight times and were tied up twice on Tuesday night, with the contest eventually falling in favor of the Trojans, 12-11. The two teams combined to score at least one run in eight of the nine innings, with each team scoring multiple runs in an inning on more than one occasion. By game's end, the box score featured a combined 23 runs and 25 hits, but Troy's ninth-inning tally proved the difference.
• UA's offense was highlighted by Alexander, who finished 3-for-4 with two home runs, three RBI, two runs scored and a walk. Also contributing three RBI was Chandler Avant, who finished 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored in the return to his hometown. Cobie Vance tallied a pair of hits as part of his 2-for-5 day at the dish and added an RBI and a run scored, while Tanner DeVinny notched his fourth home run of the season.
• The Crimson Tide returned Tuscaloosa in 2016 after spending 2015 on the road while Sewell-Thomas Stadium was undergoing renovations. Alabama finished with a 19-12 home record at The Joe compared to a 13-14 record in road and neutral-site contests in the first year of the new stadium.
• Alabama's roster features 20 letterwinners from the 2016 squad that reached the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. The 2017 Tide returns five positional starters and three starting pitchers while welcoming 16 newcomers.
SERIES HISTORY – UAB
• Alabama and UAB will meet for the 74th time in series history on Tuesday evening. It will be the second pairing between the two Alabama schools, with the Tide and Blazers meeting already once this season on March 21 in Birmingham.
• The in-state series dates back to 1974, with the Crimson Tide holding the series advantage, 49-24, and owning a 27-9 mark when playing at home.
• UA has won the last two home matchups with UAB, first winning Hoover on April 14, 2015, before taking down the Blazers in Tuscaloosa last season on April 12.
• Last season, Alabama and UAB split the series, with the home team claiming victories in each contest. The Blazers shut out the Tide, 8-0, on March 22 in Birmingham, before Alabama returned the favor with a 7-6 win at Sewell-Thomas Stadium on April 12.
• In the first meeting of the 2017 season, three freshmen in Deacon Medders, Garret Rukes and Davis Vainer combined to limit UAB to only one unearned run, helping Alabama earn the 4-1 win over the Blazers at Regions Field in Birmingham. Medders made his first career start, tossing 4.0 scoreless innings and allowing three hits and two walks while striking out three batters across his 53 pitches of work. Rukes followed with 3.1 scoreless frames to earn his second win of the season. The Tide's closer in Vainer entered for the final 1.2 innings to earn his third save of the year, giving up an unearned run in ninth.
• Alabama head coach Greg Goff is 3-4 for his career against UAB.
ON DECK
Next up for Alabama is a three-game series with the Texas A&M Aggies from Thursday through Saturday to continue the Tide's five-game home stretch. The Crimson Tide and Aggies will square off at 6 p.m. CT on both Thursday and Friday before wrapping up the series on Saturday with a 2 p.m. CT first pitch. All three games will air live on SEC Network+.
