Crimson Red Sports

The SEC Tournament starts Tuesday. The top 4 teams in the league get a bye. The remaining teams seeded 6-12 play a single elimination game on Tuesday. After that the Tournament becomes double elimination until the finals.

Bama will play Tuesday at 9:30am against Ole Miss. If we win that game we will play Texas A&M on Wednesday at 9:30am.

See the link below for a complete schedule, printable bracket, ticket information and additional information.


http://www.secsports.com/article/11037437/2015-sec-baseball-tournament

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFLRttWWIAEdrr8.jpg)

If we have a half way decent team, we should have a slight advantage since we have played there all year long.  On the other hand, our record there is not that great.

:dunno:

I just don't think the team knows how to win. They seem to find more ways to lose a game than I care to write about. I watched them beat Vandy yesterday and it impressed me but I know a game like that is one in fifteen with them and they will find a way to lose the other fourteen. I hope CMG is gone before they move in to the new stadium, I hate to see a new stadium empty of fans.

Alabama counting on consistent arm of Geoffrey Bramblett for SEC Baseball Tournament opener


http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/05/geoffrey_bramblett_alabama.html

Since most folks don't follow college baseball, I thought I would throw out some info to get an understanding of SEC baseball & the Tide.

The unanimous #1 team in the country is LSU. The SEC has 4 teams in the Top Ten per Baseball America. This includes Texas A&M, Vandy, & Florida. Arkansas is #20. Six SEC teams have an RPI in the Top 25:

#5  LSU
#6  Florida
#7  Texas A&M
#12 Vandy
#23 Aubarn
#24 Ole Miss

Alabama is 50th in RPI. The Tide has a mountain to climb in the Tournament.


See link for entire Top 25 rankings.


http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/baseball/d1/baseball-america



 :dog:

Bama up 5-1 in the 7th!

Thanks for the update.  I just turned it on.

So what you're saying is... they still have time to lose it?   :-X

Bama beats Ole Miss 6-1 to extend our season. We play Texas A&M tomorrow at 9:30am.

Bramlett was terrific today. He all 9 innings and only gave up 1 run while striking out 10. He keeps the bullpen fresh which we will need if we are going to make a deep run in this tournament.

I only saw the last couple of innings, but he was putting on a clinic.  No walks all day either.

Alabama improved their record to 31-26 wit today's win. We are playing our best baseball of the year. We are 8-0 over the last 10 games with 3 wins on RPI # 23 Auburn, 1 win over #12 Vandy and today's win over #24 Ole Miss. Our two losses were both to #12 Vandy by the score of 2-1 and 7-5.

Our RPI improved to #46 with the win. We still have a shot at getting a NCAA bid. I said before the tournament began I thought we needed 3 SEC Tournament wins to get in. We play #7 A&M tomorrow. The tournament is now double elimination so will will play at least 2 more games.

 

They showed on the broadcast that we have the #4 SOS in the country.  31-26 with the #4 SOS is not that bad actually.  CMG also stated that the reason for all of the success we have had in the last two weeks is because they are out of school now and they don't have to travel so much.  We may have underestimated how difficult it was to not have an on campus facility available this year.  Unfortunately their back is against the wall at this point and they will have to make a deep run to even be on the bubble for a shot at the tournament.  But if we make it to the tournament we might surprise some folks.

We not only had to travel for games we had to travel to practice. I think this season has been harder on the team than any of us fans realize.

This was one of the best Baseball games I've seen in a long time. Geoff was dead on and our defense and offense looked good I thought. If they play like this one game at a time there is a lot they can accomplish. RTR!

 :dance: :dance: :dance:

Missouri beat So Car 5-1. A lot of TV guys were calling this a NCAA play-in game with the winner getting a bid and the loser staying home.

Alabama and A&M get the day started at 9:30am this morning. Bama with put freshman Jack Walters (RHP 4-4 3.15 era) on the mound. A&M will pitch junior Grayson Long (RHP 9-0 2.59 ERA).

A&M won 2 of the 3 games played in Hoover during the regular season. At that time A&M was something like 20-0 and we gave them their first loss of the season.

So by us giving them their first loss of the season they will have some extra urgency to beat us today. RTR!

Bama and the Aggies are tied at 3-3 going to the 5th.

Still tied at 3-3 going to the bottom half of the 6th.  The Aggies pitcher has struck out 10 through 6 innings of work, but it has taken him 117 pitches to do it.  Hopefully we can hit their bullpen and get a W.

Looks bad.  We're down to the last out in the 9th, trailing A&M by a run (4-3).  We had a runner out at the plate too.

 :(

Bama loses 4-3. In the 9th we had a runner throw out at the plate for out #2 and ended the game with bases loaded.

Tough loss!

That runner should have never been sent home to begin with.  There was only 1 out.

>:( >:(

Well I am still hopeful someway things will workout and we can get in the NCAA's. RTR!

We will play the loser of the Vandy - Missouri game tomorrow in an elimination game. We need to win that game to extend our SEC Tournament and keep our slim NCAA hopes alive.

The good news is our RPI did not drop by losing to A&M but we missed a good opportunity to improve our RPI with a quality win.

I loved Andy Phillips as a player for us but I hate him as a third base coach and hitting coach. IMO he is the weak link in our coaching staff.

I didn't know who the 3rd base coach was but I told my wife he needed to be fired.  At first I was OK with sending the runner because I thought the runners were on 2nd and 3rd for some reason, and I thought 1 run was already in.  I would be OK with being aggressive and taking a chance with the go ahead run.  But then I realized the runners were 1st and 2nd and that was the tying run he sent.  That is when I lost it.

>:( >:(

Andy Phillips does not know how to but up a stop sign at 3rd base. He has had more men thrown out at the plate this year than I care to remember.

Remember who his boss is.


 ;)

So he has predetermined that neither one of those guys will get on base via a hit, a walk, hit by pitch, nor will they be able to move the runners on a sac fly, bunt, fielder's choice, etc., nor will there be a wild pitch.  I will take bases loaded with 1 out all day long before I would send the tying run on a 50/50 play at the plate.  Sending the runner has a run expectancy of .5 (assuming 50/50) while stopping him on 3rd has a run of expectancy of about 1.5 before the inning is over.  In other words, 3 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO SCORE by stopping him at 3rd.

I told my wife that they took the bat out of the player's hands with that boneheaded call.  Let the player's play.  Hitting is contagious.  That's why many times you get runs in batches instead of just 1.  Besides, if you had no confidence at all in either one of those guys then send in a pinch hitter for the 9 spot.

 :facepalm: :facepalm:

IMO you hold the runner at 3rd and pinch hit for the 9 hole hitter. Surely you have a guy on the bench that can hit a fly ball to the outfield. The other option would be a safety squeeze bunt. There are many ways to score a runner from 3rd with only 1 out.

Bama up 1-0 on Missouri going to the 4th.

Missouri takes the lead 2-1 going to our half of the 5th.

3-1 going to B6.

We tied it up 3-3 with a 2-out rally!  Still batting

This is going to be a tight game it looks like. The back and forth play. Could be one of those extra innings day. RTR!

Holding at 4-3 our defense and pitching is really gonna have to bare down. RTR!

Well Haynie hammer that HR and it was the big one. Good win. I am starting to get worried with all these one run games. lol, RTR!

Bama wins 4-3. We advance to play the loser of the A&M - Vandy game at 3:00 Friday.

Roll Tide!

Auburn is losing 11-1 in the 6th.  :lol2:

Fla looks like they have a good ball club. Just about everything they do works today. RTR!

I thought the barn had a tough match up today. UF has a good team and I expected them to bounce back after last night's loss with something to prove. They are too good to go 0-2 in this tourney.

I'm impressed with your baseball savvy SC. You have been keeping secrets from us.



 :behave:

I followed the Braves from the time I was a kid up until about a decade ago when I finally got sick of winning the division and losing in the playoffs every year.  I probably watched anywhere from 80 to 100 games a year back then since they were pretty much all on TBS every night.  I was living behind the Bryant Museum in the old 9th Street apartments the year we played the Pirates in the NLCS and Sid "Scooter" Bream scored from 2nd base on a single hit to left field.  We didn't know it at the time, but we found out pretty much the entire building was watching the game as soon as he was called safe at home and Skip Carey started yelling "Braves Win!  Braves Win!"  The whole building started shaking from everybody jumping up and down and cheering.  You could hear all the neighbors cheering through the walls.  I am sure they heard us too.  I will never forget that as long as I live.

Once they started dismantling the pitching staff I knew the run was over and lost interest.  I have a renewed interest now that my son is playing little league.  I still don't waste any time watching the Braves though.  :lol2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYIPtLDWx-s

A&M beat Vandy. We will play Vandy tomorrow at 3:00.

So if we beat Vandy does that mean we will make it into the tournament?

Some people say we need to win today and we will be in. Some others are saying we have to make it to the finals on Sunday and possibly even have to win the SEC Tournament.

Bottom line is we are on the bubble and will be one of the last teams in if we make it at all. A lot depends on how many teams win their conference tournament that would not make it otherwise. Everytime that happens one at large bid goes away.

Positives to get in:
* SEC normally gets 8 teams in. We appear to be #8 right now.
* Our RPI is 43. A win over Vandy should bump us into the upper 30's.
* We are a hot team right now. We are 7-3 in our last 10 and 10-3 in our last 13.    The 3 losses have come against highly regarded Vandy 2-1 & 7-5 and A&M 4-3. Good losses if there is such a thing. Quality wins in that stretch include 3 over #22 Auburn, 1 over Vany, 1 over #24 Ole Miss and 1 against a top 50 Mizzou.
* The committee could take into consideration us having to play and practice on the road all year.
* Our strength of schedule is #3.

Negatives:
* Our RPI is #43. The lowest SEC RPI to ever make the NCAA is 48.
* Our regular season conference record is a killer at 12-18. This is the biggest black eye on our stat sheet and is hard to overcome.

Our best bet is to keep winning. I like our changes if we win today. A loss today and our bubble could burst.

 #+ to pmull for the information here. I can't see how we would need to win out through the SEC tourney although I would love to. I hope we can Geoff fresh for the games he is one of the best college pitchers I have seen in a long time. I just hope we beat Vandy and I think maybe that will do the trick. JMHPO. RTR!

We will put junior RHP Will Carter on the mound today. He is 4-3 4.68 ERA but he has won his last 3 starts. Carter started the season in the weekend rotation but was replaced midway through the season by freshman Jake Walters. We need a good start from him today.

We are on Game 4 in the SEC Tournament and Vandy is on Game 3. Our pitching is holding up pretty good due to good starts in all 3 games. Our bullpen is pretty fresh. The complete game by Day 1 starter Bramblett helped a lot. Day 2 stater Walters and Day 3 Guibeau both pitched deep into the game with quality starts.

Bama getting killed by Vandy, 6-1 when I turned off the TV.

Now it is Vandy 13 Bama 1.   :facepalm:

Our defense needs work. 

It got ugly today. I hope the NCAA committee does not take the final score into consideration. A loss to Vandy is not bad but this is a blowout.

I remember when this game took place also. Dottie was with me in Sea Drift Texas where I was working construction on a Union Carbide Plant that had blown up. I was working for Brown & Rott which was owned by Lady Bird Johnson of all people. I thought all the way Sid was gonna be out. He looked like his total breath was gone when he layed back. rofl. RTR!

Bama gets Mercy Ruled in 7 innings, 16-1. 

Alabama's RBI is still 44 and the SOS 3. I think we will be the 8th SEC team in the committee's view. The problem is how many SEC teams get in. It has been a long time since only 7 teams made the field. However, the latest projections are showing only 7.

We are a long shot to get in but it is not impossible. If we do not make it we will be one of the highest RPI's not to get in. Our 12-18 conference record may be too much to overcome.

7 SEC Teams were invited.  Bama was not one of them.



http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/ucla-seed-1st-time-ncaa-baseball-tournament-31291137

Here is the NCAA Baseball Bracket:

http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/baseball/d1

Thanks, CP.

Auburn is in the same bracket as FSU and in Tallahassee. Their first game is against College of Charleston, a good team. I don't see the barn going very far.

SEC fatigue is setting into baseball like it is in football. The SEC is the highest rated league by a large margin all year. The SEC will host 4 regionals (LSU, Florida, Vandy & A&M) but only LSU (2) and Florida (4) are national seeds scheduled to host super regionals should they win the regional. Only 7 teams got in. The others are Ole Miss, Arkansas and Auburn. This is the fewer teams to make the NCAA field in years.

How close were we to making the field? I have no idea but if RPI has anything to do with it we just missed. Our RPI is 45. Below is a list of at large teams that made the field with similar RPI's

CAl        39
Tulane   42
Maryland 43
Norte Dame  40
UC Irvine   47
Clemson   54
Oregon    62

Highest team to not get in North Carolina (28). Next lowest Georgia Tech (38).