March 11, 2009

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Alabama-Samford Boxscore

Alabama Updated Stats (13 Games)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama held a comfortable lead through six innings, but needed some late-inning offense to finally put away the Samford Bulldogs, 11-6, on Wednesday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

Freshman center fielder Taylor Dugas had four hits and reached base five times to pace the Crimson Tide’s 19-hit attack.  Kent Matthes, Cody Trotter and Ross Wilson all had home runs for Alabama, which has homered in all 13 games this season.  Third-baseman Jake Smith had three hits and four RBI in the win.

“Things are coming around,” Dugas said after the game.  “We came out ready to play today and put some quality at-bats together and we did a good job of that tonight.”

Alabama (9-4) held a 7-1 lead after six innings, before Samford took advantage of a season-high six walks and three hit batters by the UA pitching staff, and three errors on defense, to narrow the gap to 7-6 in the eighth inning.

Samford (5-8) scored two runs in the sixth inning, aided by two walks and a hit batter against freshman Tyler White and an error on shortstop Josh Rutledge that would have ended the inning.  A hit batter and walk loaded the bases in the seventh and Stephen Bennett’s two-run single off Casey Kebodeaux made it a 7-5 game. 

In the eighth, David Schulze delivered an RBI single off Austin Evans and the Bulldogs had two runners on base before Evans got Trey Hayes to fly out to left field.

After leaving eight men on base in the first seven innings, including seven in scoring position, Alabama  put the game away with a four-run, eighth inning, highlighted by Wilson’s three-run home run. 

Dugas led off with a single to left and moved to second when Rutledge’s sacrifice bunt attempt hit the first base bag for a base hit.  Matthes flied out to center and both runners tagged to bring Wilson to the plate.  The sophomore second baseman drove a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall to give UA a 10-6 lead. Trotter followed with a base hit and moved to third base when Kyle Moore reached on an error by third baseman Bronson McGriff.  Smith followed with an RBI single to cap the scoring at 11-6.

Sophomore right-hander Nathan Kilcrease (1-1) held the Bulldogs to one run and three hits in four innings of work for the win.  He added six strikeouts and one walk.  Evans, who retired four of the six batters he faced, earned his first career save on the mound.

Samford starter Kyle Putkonen (0-1) was charged with the loss, after allowing six runs and nine hits in three-plus innings.

Alabama struck first and to no surprise it was another Matthes home run in the first inning to put the Tide up 2-0.  Dugas led off the game with a four-pitch walk and scored on Matthes’ NCAA leading 11th home run of the season off the batter’s eye in dead center field.

The Crimson Tide made it a 3-0 in the second inning when Smith ripped a one-out single to left and scored on Dugas’ two-out double to right-center field.

Samford scored its first run in the third inning when Stephen Ballard was hit by a pitch and moved around the bases on a single and wild pitch, before scoring on a Vin DiFazio throwing error.

Alabama added three more runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 6-1 lead.  Matthes singled and scored on DiFazio’s double to left field and Smith added a two-out, two-run double to put the Tide up by five runs.

Trotter slammed the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the fifth inning to the right of the scoreboard in left-center field, his second home run of the season, to give the Tide a 7-1 lead.

Alabama will host top-ranked and defending Southeastern Conference champion Georgia this weekend, in the SEC opener for both teams.  The series opener is Friday, March 13, at 6:35 p.m. (CST).  The series continues Saturday, March 14, at 4:05 p.m. (CST) and Sunday, March 15, at 2:05 p.m. (CST).  Tickets for the Georgia-Alabama series are available at www.RollTide.com.

GAME NOTES:
*Alabama has scored 10 or more runs six times this season, including five of its last seven games.  In its last five wins, Alabama has scored 71 runs.

*Senior right fielder Kent Matthes (Orlando, Fla.) hit his NCAA-leading 11th home run in the first inning of Wednesday’s game with Samford.  Matthes has homered in nine of the Tide’s 13 games this season, including three straight.  He hit a home run in a school-record six straight games from Feb. 22-March 3. 

*Matthes went 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 13 games this season.

*Freshman center fielder Taylor Dugas (Lafayette, La.) went 4-for-4 with two runs scored, two doubles and one RBI to extend his hitting streak to four games.  It was his second four-hit game of the season.  Dugas also had four hits in the Tide’s 20-4 win over UIC on Feb. 28.

*Junior third baseman Jake Smith (Shannon, Ala.) had three hits and three RBI to extend his hitting streak to six games.  He has 10 RBI in those six games.

*Alabama’s catchers – Vin Difazio and Cody Trotter – were 4-for-5 with three runs scored, one home run and one RBI in the win over Samford.  Difazio had two hits, including a third-inning double, while Trotter added two hits, including his second home run of the year.

*Alabama pitchers issued a season-high six walks and three hits batters against Samford.

*The Crimson Tide defense made a season-high three errors against the Bulldogs. The Tide entered the game with the SEC’s highest fielding percentage (.978) this year.