Alabama to Play Home-and-Home with Troy on Tuesday and Wednesday Night
4/3/2017 5:23:00 PM | Baseball
The Crimson Tide and Trojans will meet for the 33rd and 34th times this week
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama begins a home-and-home midweek pairing with in-state foe Troy on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Tide will first travel to Troy on Tuesday night before the Trojans head to Tuscaloosa for a Wednesday matchup at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The Crimson Tide and Trojans are scheduled for a 6 p.m. CT first pitch for both games. The away matchup will air live on ESPN3 with the home pairing at The Joe playing on SEC Network+ with the Tide's duo of Eli Gold and Lance Cormier calling all the action.
FOLLOW THE TIDE
Fans can follow the midweek games via the below outlets:
Watch: ESPN3 (Tuesday) / SEC Network+ (Wednesday)
Listen: 102.9 FM / CTSN / TuneIn App
Twitter: @AlabamaBSB
Live Stats: TroyTrojans.com (Tuesday) / RollTide.com (Wednesday)
LEADING OFF
• Troy enters the midweek series with a 14-12 overall record, including a 10-7 non-conference mark. The Trojans split their last pair of non-conference games against Samford, taking down the Bulldogs at home on Tuesday, March 21, before falling in Birmingham the next day. Most recently, Troy fell in conference play to UT-Arlington on the road, winning the series finale to avoid a sweep by the Mavericks.
• Alabama and Troy will square off for the 33rd and 34th times in series history when the two square off this week. The Crimson Tide holds a 22-10 advantage in the series, a record that improves at home where UA owns an 18-4 mark. Alabama has won eight consecutive games against Troy in Tuscaloosa with the last loss coming in 2006. The Tide is currently riding a three-game winning streak over the Trojans with wins in Tuscaloosa and at Troy in 2016, and in Pensacola in 2014.
• The Crimson Tide will use freshman right-hander Deacon Medders in Tuesday's game at Troy. Medders has made six appearances on the season with one start, maintaining a 0.87 ERA (1 ER/10.1 IP). As a starter, Medders has thrown 4.0 innings, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out three. His starter totals came in the March 21st matchup at UAB.
• The Trojans will use a pair of right-handers in the Tuesday-Wednesday games, first with junior Corey Childress on Tuesday followed by senior Houston Mabray on Wednesday in Tuscaloosa. Childress has made two starts on the season as part of his 10 appearances and holds a 5.75 ERA (13 ER/20.1 IP). The Wednesday arm, Mabray, is 1-1 on the season, making six total starts and manages a 4.70 ERA (12 ER/23.0 IP).
• The Wednesday pairing will be "$5 Wednesday" with all grandstand tickets going for $5. The featured sorority will be Kappa Kappa Gamma.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
TUESDAY: UA – Deacon Medders (Fr., RHP) vs. TROY – Corey Childress (Jr., RHP)
WEDNESDAY: UA – TBA vs. TROY – Houston Mabray (Sr., RHP)
SCOUTING ALABAMA
• The Crimson Tide closed out the week 4-1 overall, falling to 18th-ranked Auburn in Montgomery Tuesday before a 1-2 series record weekend against No. 21 Arkansas.
• Alabama suffered a 4-3 lost Tuesday evening at Riverwalk Stadium in front of 7,605 fans and the MAX Capital City Classic. The Tigers took an early lead with a three-run third inning, but Alabama answered back with single tallies in the third, fourth and fifth frames to make it a 3-3 contest. One run in the top of the sixth by Auburn ended the day's scoring and helped the Tigers improve to 8-1 in the history of the Montgomery series.
• The Tide fell 7-1 to the No. 21 Arkansas Razorbacks on Friday evening at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. Arkansas starter Blaine Knight was in control on Friday evening, throwing eight innings of one-run baseball. In his eight frames of work, the sophomore righty limited the Crimson Tide bats to just one run on three hits, while collecting seven strikeouts. After surrendering one run in the bottom of the first, the Razorback pitcher went on to retire 19 Alabama hitters in a row, while sitting down 22 of the final 23 batters he faced for his fourth win of the season.
• Dylan Duarte's 8.1 innings of one-run baseball paired with two big innings from the Crimson Tide offense propelled Alabama to the 7-1 win over Arkansas on Saturday night. Duarte earned his second win of the season behind a career-long 8.1 innings of work. The sophomore allowed only one run on six hits with no walks and tallied four strikeouts spanning a career-high 116 pitches before handing the ball to Davis Vainer in the ninth. Vainer tossed the final two-thirds of the ninth to shut the door on the Tide victory.
• The Crimson Tide bats excelled on Saturday, with seven of the nine starters collecting at least one hit in the contest. The offense was paced by multi-hit efforts from Hunter Alexander, Cody Henry and Tanner DeVinny. Alexander collected a pair of hits in four at-bats, while adding one RBI and a season-high two runs scored. Henry tallied his 10th multi-hit game of the season, which ties him for the team lead, going 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored. DeVinny finished his night with a 2-for-3 effort that included one RBI, one walk and a run scored to extend his SEC hitting streak to six games.
• Sunday's series finale went in favor of Arkansas, 8-5. After the Crimson Tide rallied to tie the game in the seventh, the Razorbacks plated three ninth-inning runs to claim the Sunday win and the series victory. Arkansas jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, but Alabama answered with a three-spot in the bottom of the third to tie things up. The Razorbacks scored a pair in the sixth to regain the advantage, but the Tide battled back once again to match with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh. The two teams went scoreless in the eighth before Arkansas pulled away with a three-run ninth inning for the win.
• The Tide offense was led by its 1-through-3 hitters, who batted a combined 8-for-15 (.533) with four RBI and four of the Tide's five runs scored. Leading the pack was the two-hole hitter in Chandler Avant, who finished 4-for-5 with a double and a pair of runs scored, setting a new career-high mark for hits in a game. The Tide's No. 3 hitter, Kyle Kaufman, recorded all four of the team's RBI, finishing with a home run and a run scored as part of his 2-for-5 day.
• Avant lead the Crimson Tide in every offensive category against the Razorbacks. The junior batted .455 (5-11) with a double, three runs scored and a pair hit-by-pitches while slugging .545 for the weekend.
• 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 – TROY
• Alabama and Troy will meet for the 33rd and 34th time in series history when the two teams square off on Tuesday and Wednesday night. The Crimson Tide holds a 22-10 advantage in the series, including an 18-4 mark in home games against the Trojans.
• The Crimson Tide is currently riding a three-game winning streak in the series and has won seven of the last 10 pairings between the two Alabama schools.
• Troy's last win in Tuscaloosa came in 2007, when the Trojans came away with a 7-5 win in 12 innings on Feb. 14.
• Alabama and Troy met twice in 2016 with Alabama taking both of the games in the home-and-home series. UA first traveled to Troy, claiming a 2-1 win on March 1, before welcoming the Trojans to Tuscaloosa, with Alabama winning 5-3 on its home turf on April 19.
• Head coach Greg Goff has never faced Troy during his career.
ON DECK
Following the pair of midweek matchups, the Crimson Tide will travel to Oxford, Miss., for a weekend series with the Ole Miss Rebels. The two teams will begin the SEC pairing on Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. CT followed by a 3 p.m. CT first pitch on Saturday. The Sunday finale with the Rebels is set to start at 3 p.m. CT. The first two contests can be seen on SEC Network+, with the series finale airing live on SEC Network.
