Alabama Travels to Oxford for Weekend Series with Ole Miss
4/6/2017 12:03:00 PM | Baseball
The Crimson Tide and Rebels will meet for the 355th time on Friday evening in the Tide’s second-longest standing SEC series
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama travels to Oxford this weekend for a three-game series with Ole Miss. The series will be the Tide's second SEC road series of the season. The Crimson Tide and Rebels are slated for a 6:30 p.m. CT first pitch on Friday night in the opener before a 3 p.m. CT start for the final two games of the weekend. The first two matchups will air live on SEC Network+ with the series finale showing nationally on SEC Network. The duo of Mike Morgan and Ben McDonald will call all the action on Sunday for the Network.
FOLLOW THE TIDE
Fans can follow this weekend's games via the below outlets:
Watch: SEC Network+ (Friday & Saturday) / SEC Network (Sunday)
Listen: 102.9 FM / CTSN / TuneIn App
Twitter: @AlabamaBSB
Live Stats: OleMissSports.com
LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss welcomes the Crimson Tide to Oxford with a 17-12 overall record, including a 3-6 mark in conference play. The Rebels took down Southern Miss on Tuesday, 6-5, in an extra-innings affair that went 12 frames. Prior to the matchup with the Golden Eagles, Ole Miss was swept at home by rival Mississippi State across last weekend's series. The Rebels are 1-2 in SEC series this season, taking two-of-three from Vanderbilt to start conference play before falling, 1-2, at No. 19 Kentucky the next weekend.
• Alabama and Ole Miss will square off for the 355th time in series history when the two teams meet on Friday evening. The series with the Rebels is the second-oldest standing series with an SEC opponent with only Vanderbilt series dating back further. UA holds a 208-144-2 advantage over Ole Miss and maintains a 74-65-1 record in games played in Oxford. Alabama has won seven of the last 10 pairings, including taking two-of-three games from Ole Miss in Tuscaloosa last season from April 15-17. The last matchup in Oxford came from April 25-26, 2015, with the Rebels taking the first two games of the weekend in a doubleheader before the Tide salvaged the series with a 13-4 win on getaway day thanks to a dominant performance from Geoffrey Bramblett.
• The Crimson Tide will call on its pair of regular weekend starters in Dylan Duarte and Nick Eicholtz for the first two games of the series in Oxford, with Sunday's starter to be announced. Duarte, a sophomore left-hander, will take the hill in the series opener with the senior Eicholtz, a righty, getting the nod on Saturday.
• The Rebels will use a righty and a pair of left-handers this weekend. The series opener will feature sophomore right-hander James McArthur on Friday with junior lefty David Parkinson going on Saturday. In Sunday's series finale, Ole Miss will feature freshman southpaw Ryan Rolison.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
FRIDAY: UA – Dylan Duarte (So., LHP) vs. UM – James McArthur (So., RHP)
SATURDAY: UA – Nick Eicholtz (Sr., RHP) vs. UM – David Parkinson (Jr., LHP)
SUNDAY: UA – TBA vs. UM – Ryan Rolison (Fr., LHP)
SCOUTING ALABAMA
• The Crimson Tide went 1-3 across its last three games. Last weekend's SEC pairing saw the No. 21 Arkansas Razorbacks take the bookend games of the weekend in Tuscaloosa from the Crimson Tide for the series victory. Most recently, Alabama traveled to Troy on Tuesday with the Trojans walking it off for a 12-11 win in a back-and-forth contest at Riddle-Pace Field.
• 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 inning, 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 Hunter 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 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 Alexander, Cody Henry and 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 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 led the Crimson Tide in nearly 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 – OLE MISS
• Alabama and Ole Miss will meet for the 355th time in series history when the two teams meet on Friday evening at Swayze Field. The series dates back to 1895 and is the second-longest running SEC series in Alabama history, trailing only Vanderbilt.
• The Crimson Tide holds the all-time advantage, 208-144-2, and maintains a 74-65-1 record in games played in Oxford.
• UA has won seven of the last 10 pairings, including taking two-of-three games from then-No. 8 Ole Miss in Tuscaloosa last season from April 15-17. The Rebels took game one of the weekend, 4-0, but the Crimson Tide rallied back for a 2-0 shutout of its own on Saturday before winning the series with a 7-2 victory on Sunday.
• Last season's series opener fell in favor of Ole Miss, 4-0, in a pitcher's duel. Junior Geoffrey Bramblett worked 7.0 innings and allowed one unearned run on two hits and three walks with eight strikeouts, but did not receive any run support in the 2-0 loss.
• Game two featured another shutout, this time in favor of the Crimson Tide, 2-0. Jake Walters and closer Thomas Burrows combined for the Tide's fourth shutout victory of the season. Walters worked 7.0 innings and allowed only four hits and one walk while striking out four batters for the win. Burrows followed with 2.0 innings to record his ninth save of the season.
• A six-run fifth inning proved the difference in Sunday's rubber match, as Alabama finished off the eighth-ranked Rebels by a score of 7-2. Nick Eicholtz earned his third win of the season thanks to 6.0 innings of one-run baseball. Reliever Dylan Duarte followed for 3.0 innings of work to earn his second save of the season.
• Alabama's starters recorded a 0.45 ERA (1 ER/20.0 IP) across the three games with Ole Miss last season, allowing a combined two runs (one earned) on 12 hits and six walks with 15 strikeouts.
• The last pairing in Oxford came from April 25-26, 2015, with the Rebels taking the first two games of the weekend in doubleheader on Saturday before the Tide salvaged the series with a 13-4 win on getaway day thanks to a dominant performance from Geoffrey Bramblett.
• Alabama came out on top in the first two meetings ever in 1895 and went on to win 13 straight contests before Ole Miss earned its first victory over the Crimson Tide in the third game of the series in 1907.
• Head coach Greg Goff has never faced Ole Miss during his career.
ON DECK
Alabama returns home after the weekend in Oxford to begin a five-game homestand at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The stretch begins with a midweek contest against UAB on Tuesday, April 11. The Tide and Blazers met already this season, with Alabama claiming a 4-1 win on March 21 at Regions Field in Birmingham. Following the midweek matchup, Alabama will welcome the Texas A&M Aggies to The Joe for a Thursday-Saturday series from April 13-15.
