Columbia, Alabama Baseball Have Deep Ties

Alabama hosts Columbia this weekend in the final non-conference series of the year.

While this weekend is the first head-to-head meetings, the two teams share some rich baseball history.

The Crimson Tide and Lions have never met on the diamond, but two schools did play in the same NCAA Regional in Conway, SC in 2008.

Alabama is the alma mater of Hall of Famer Joe Sewell.

Columbia is the alma mater of Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig.

Both Gehrig and Sewell were teammates and roommates with the New York Yankees.

The duo helped the Yankees to the 1932 World Series championship with a four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs left fielder in that series was Riggs Stephenson, teammate and friend of Sewell at Alabama.

The 1932 WS is noted for the famous “called home run” by Babe Ruth.

Sewell. Stephenson and Gehrig were all there to see it up close.

Alabama College Baseball Division I Weekly Update

Auburn and Alabama State enter the week with the longest winning streaks among the state of Alabama’s Division I teams. Auburn enters the week with an 8-game winning streak, while Alabama State has won seven straight games. (PHOTO: Auburn Media Relations)

The Tigers play five games this weekend, hosting Georgia Tech, Wofford and Texas A&M in the opening weekend of SEC play. The Hornets also play five games, hosting Valparaiso and Alcorn State this week.

Auburn senior first baseman Rankin Woley has been selected as the Bats and Blogs Alabama Division I Player of the Week after his performance against Chicago State. Auburn junior RHP Tanner Burns and Alabama State junior RHP Jacknell Guzman was selected as the Bats and Blogs Alabama Division I co-Pitchers of the Week. Burns took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against Chicago State, while Guzman had 16 strikeouts in the complete-game win at Miss. Valley State.

Alabama Division I Baseball Update

Alabama (12-0) is off to the second-best start in program history. The 1997 College World Series runner-up opened the season with a 15-0 record. Alabama opened the 1988 season with an 11-0 mark, which is now the third-best in school history.

The Crimson Tide is one of eight undefeated NCAA Division I college baseball teams. Florida, Mercer, North Carolina State, St. Bonaventure, Tennessee, Texas A&M and UCLA are also undefeated.

In addition to the Crimson Tide, Alabama State, Auburn and Samford have reached the 10-win mark. North Alabama had a combined no-hitter in a 1-0 win over Belmont on Feb. 25. It was one of five Division I no-hitters last week. There have been nine Division I no-hitters this season.

Jacksonville State first baseman Andrew Naismith was named the Bats and Blogs Alabama Division I Player of the Week, while Alabama A&M right-hander Fernando Diaz, Jr., was named the Bats and Blogs Alabama Division I Pitcher of the Week.

SEC Players of the Week (March 2)

The Southeastern Conference announced its Baseball Players of the Week on Monday.  Tucker Bradley, Cole Wilcox, Braden Forsyth and Peyton Wilson were honored for their accomplishments this week.

Alabama Division I Baseball Notebook

Alabama is the lone undefeated team in the state of Alabama, posting a perfect 7-0 record through the first two weeks of the season. The seven-game winning streak is the second longest active streak in the state behind fellow Tuscaloosa County resident, Shelton State. The Bucs have won nine straight games after a successful weekend in Panama City.

Alabama right fielder Tyler Gentry and catcher Sam Praytor are the Bats and Blog co-Players of the Week, while Troy junior RHP Levi Thomas was named the after the opening weekend of the season.

In four games against Alabama State and UNLV, Gentry was 6-for-16 (.375) with four runs scores, two doubles, two home runs and six RBIs. Praytor was 4-for-9 with three runs scored, three home runs and five RBIs in the UNLV series. Both had multi home run games in Vegas.

For the second straight week, Troy’s Levi Thomas is the Bats and Blogs Pitcher of the Week after leading the Trojans to a 4-0 win over Louisiana Tech in the series opener last Friday. Three Troy pitchers combined on the 1-hitter in the series opener. Thomas continued his dominant start to the season with six no-hit innings and 11 strikeouts. In his two starts, Thomas has allowed only two hits in 11 scoreless innings with 26 strikeouts.

A new feature this season will be a weekly update on small college baseball (Division II, Division III, NAIA and NJCAA) in the state of Alabama. In the latest edition of the Alabama College Baseball Update, here is a recap of the opening weekend of the NCAA Division I baseball season. Here is a look at this week’s Alabama Division I college baseball news and notes.

Alabama College Baseball Schedule (Friday, Feb. 21-Thursday, Feb. 27)

Here is the complete listing of all college baseball games for the state of Alabama from Friday, Feb. 21 through Thursday, Feb. 27. Games are subject to change due to weather.

Alabama Division I College Baseball Update

A new feature this season will be a weekly update on small college baseball (Division II, Division III, NAIA and NJCAA) in the state of Alabama. In the latest edition of the Alabama College Baseball Update, here is a recap of the opening weekend of the NCAA Division I baseball season. Here is a look at this week’s Alabama Division I college baseball news and notes.

Alabama freshman Owen Diodati is the Bats and Blog Player of the Week, while Troy junior RHP Levi Thomas was named the Bats and Blogs Pitcher of the Week after the opening weekend of the season. (Diodati photo by Rick Pendley; @alagrandslammer)

Diodati led the Crimson Tide with three multi-hit games in a three-game sweep of Northeastern. Five of his six hits went for extra bases, and he contributed multi-RBI efforts in each game of the weekend. Diodati homered twice on Opening Day and finished the weekend with three home runs, a double, triple and eight RBIs. He was the first Alabama player to hit two Opening Day home runs since Dustan Mohr belted two against Michigan in 1997.

Thomas posted a career-high 14 strikeouts in just 5 innings of work during an 18-6 win over Northern Kentucky. He opened the night with seven consecutive strikeouts, the most since Shane McCann fanned six straight against Louisiana in 2011. For his efforts he was named the Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week.

SEC Baseball Players of the Week

The Southeastern Conference announced the players of the week on Monday. Arkansas had the SEC Player of the Week and Pitcher of Week in the same week for the first time in school history. Alabama freshman Owen Diodati homered twice in his debut to earn SEC Freshman of the Week honors.

Vanderbilt Picked To Win 2020 SEC Baseball Championship

Vanderbilt University has been predicted to win the 2020 Southeastern Conference baseball championship as voted by the league’s 14 head coaches in the annual preseason poll released Thursday. The Preseason All-SEC First and Second Teams, as determined by the head coaches, were also announced.

Vanderbilt garnered eight first place votes, Florida had two, while Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia and Mississippi State each had one. The Commodores were predicted to win the SEC Eastern Division, while Arkansas was the favorite to win the SEC Western Division.

Since 1996, the SEC has name a regular season champion as well as a tournament champion. Prior to 1996, the tournament champion was considered the SEC champion.

Points were compiled on a descending basis for each division. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team, and each coach also voted for one team as an overall conference champion.

SEC Baseball TV Schedule Announced

ESPN will present more than 1,000 NCAA baseball games during the 2020 regular season across ESPN networks, with 17 college conferences highlighted in ESPN’s industry-leading coverage. During the postseason, on top of carrying the entire Southeastern Conference tournament, 153 games will be televised across ESPN Networks, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, SEC Network, with all college baseball action available on the ESPN App.

Two-thirds of the games on ESPN networks include a team in the USA TODAY Coaches Preseason Top 25*, while 82 games feature the preseason top 10 and 48 games highlight at least one top five team. 23 of the preseason Top 25 teams will appear on ESPN networks during the season.