Tide Eliminated from NCAA Tournament by Houston, 16-8
8/28/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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*The Alabama Crimson Tide's (38-24) season came to an end Saturday night following a 16-8 loss to the Houston Cougars in the 2003 College Station Regional played at Olsen Field. The Crimson Tide went 1-2 in the College Station Regional and finished third in the four-team, double-elimination tournament.
*Alabama lost two games on Saturday, dropping a 16-5 decision to host and No. 1 seed Texas A&M before falling to UA in the nightcap.
*The Texas A&M Aggies and Houston Cougars will play in the championship game on Sunday, June 1 beginning at 2 p.m. The Cougars must win twice on Sunday against the well-rested Aggies. An if necessary game is scheduled for 7 p.m.
*With the loss to Houston, Alabama fails to make the championship game of an NCAA Regional for the first time since 1986 when the Crimson Tide finished third at the Atlantic Regional in Coral Gables, Fla., hosted by the Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes.
*The Crimson Tide had made eight straight NCAA Regional championship appearances before the loss to Houston on Saturday night. The Crimson Tide had played for a regional title in 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002.
*Alabama has not won a regional championship since 1999 and has not won one on the road since the 1983 South Regional at Tallahassee, Fla., beating Miami (twice) and Florida State.
*In the two losses on Saturday, Alabama used nine different pitchers against Texas A&M and Houston. The Crimson Tide trotted six pitchers to the mound in the loss to the Cougars.
*Alabama surrendered 32 runs and 37 hits in its two losses on Saturday. In both games, Alabama tied a school post-season record for most runs allowed in a single NCAA Tournament game. The Crimson Tide gave up 16 runs in the loss to Texas A&M and 16 more runs in the elimination loss to Houston. Alabama also yielded that many runs in a 16-6 loss to Stanford in the championship game of the 2000 Palo Alto Regional.
*Senior center fielder Travis Garner had three hits and two RBI in the loss to Houston, his final game with the Crimson Tide.
*Senior Beau Hearod added two hits in his final game with the Crimson Tide and finished the season with 20 home runs and 82 RBI.
*Sophomore second baseman Allen Rice and junior left fielder Ryan Beagle had two his each in the loss.
