TUSCALOOSA - Sore arms have been a sore spot this season for the Alabama baseball team, but now a catcher has pitched in, and things are looking up for the Crimson Tide.

Junior college transfer Josh Rosecrans made his pitching debut Wednesday and struck out all three batters he faced in Alabama's 10-0 victory over Mississippi Valley State.

His 11-pitch, nine-strike performance overshadowed five perfect innings by starter Adam Windsor and came just in time for a three-game series against Tennessee that starts at 6:35 p.m. today at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

"Josh Rosecrans was the story," Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. "He was a pitcher in junior college. We just hadn't used it. With our situation being down on arms, we started looking at it a few days back. Boy, I thought he was outstanding today. That gives us another bullet moving forward."

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Much of the excitement about the upcoming 2011-12 University of Alabama basketball season is based on a strong core of returning players, something that both JaMychal Green and Tony Mitchell talked about after Tuesday night's Tuscaloosa Tip-off Club team banquet. But even with those two stars and more coming back, the departing senior class will be tougher to replace than statistics might indicate.

That was evident both from the awards selected by the Crimson Tide coaching staff and the post-banquet highlight film, which put the senior group - Chris Hines, Senario Hillman and Charvez Davis, as well as walk-on Juastin Luquire - in perspective.

While it was Mitchell, Green and freshman point guard Trevor Releford making the spectacular plays, time and again it was the quiet contribution of Hines, Hillman and Davis that made the difference.

Both Mitchell and Green talked about their decisions to forego any professional aspirations and instead try to be the same sort of leaders for next year's Crimson Tide team.

"Just watching the (highlight) video made me think that," Green said. "I've been concentrating on finishing the semester strong, but it made me think about my senior year. I am ready to get started."

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TUSCALOOSA – Break out the lab coats. Alabama was experimenting with its offensive line on Tuesday.

Alabama returns four of its five offensive starters from last season. Alfred McCullough and juco transfer Aaron Douglas have been battling for James Carpenter’s vacancy at left tackle. But right guard Barrett Jones practiced at left tackle on Tuesday, where McCullough had worked with the ones most of this spring. Anthony Steen practiced at right guard.

Crimson Tide center William Vlachos wasn’t surprised at some of the juggling in the two and a half hour session.

“It’s been my experience the last four or five years that this last week (of spring) is kind of a time when you experiment with some things – get some film of people doing different stuff at different spots,” Vlachos said after the Tide’s 13th of 15 practices.

Alabama coach Nick Saban has done this frequently in the past. Receiver Brandon Gibson split time last spring with the offense and as a defensive back.

“I don’t know if this is temporary or a long-term deal,” Vlachos said. “But today Barrett took all the snaps at left tackle with the ones and he did a very good job. Obviously, Barrett’s a smart guy and they feel confident they could put him anywhere.

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The No. 24 Alabama baseball team got back on the winning track, defeating the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils by a score of 10-1 Tuesday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. Crimson Tide first baseman Austen Smith went 1-for-1, with a home run, two walks and one hit by pitch, reaching base in all four of his plate appearances.

With the win, Alabama (22-13) snaps a season-long five-game losing streak and improves to 20-3 at home. Mississippi Valley State falls to 13-20 overall. UA junior center fielder Taylor Dugas continued his solid play, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI and junior shortstop Jared Reaves added two runs as well, going 2-for-5 with one RBI.

"That was just what we needed right now," UA head coach Mitch Gaspard said. "After a tough week last week, we came back and had solid pitching all night and got the bats going. That was really good to see. We had pretty good production throughout the lineup and played a good clean game. That was our mission this week after we left Vanderbilt Sunday. It was just kind flush that down and get back on track this week. Obviously this was a good start tonight."

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TROY, Ala. - The Alabama softball team bounced back with a 5-2 win over Troy, Tuesday night in front of a record crowd of 1,351 fans at the Troy Softball Complex. The Crimson Tide was able to push across some runs early to secure the win and improve to 38-5 on the season.

Freshman Jackie Traina (15-3) struck out eight and allowed two runs on four hits in six innings to earn the victory. Traina bounced back after allowing two runs in the first to retire 16 in a row before handing the ball off to senior Kelsi Dunne.

Dunne earned her second save of the season on the strength of four strikeouts in one inning. Traina also got the job done at the plate, collecting three hits while scoring a run.

Junior Amanda Locke tallied three hits while the top of the order in sophomore Kayla Braud and junior Jennifer Fenton combined to tally four hits, score two runs and steal five bases.

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The 23rd-ranked women's tennis (14-5, 7-3 SEC) team won its seventh-consecutive match as it topped No. 16 Tennessee (16-6, 8-2 SEC) 5-2 on Tuesday at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. With the win, the Crimson Tide clinched the Southeastern Conference Western Division title for the first time since 2006 and took down the Lady Volunteer for the first time since 2005.

"Winning the SEC West was one of our goals heading into this season," Alabama head coach Jenny Mainz said. "This league is so tough that anytime you have a chance to win a title, and win it the way we did today, it is very promising. This win really meant a lot."

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This is in the local paper in R'ville today.

More info including direct quotes from Brent Calloway here:
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Interesting article about Dareus from the Carolina Panthers website....


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