Alabama gets NCAA call

TUSCALOOSA - Before the season began, the University of Alabama baseball team was picked to finish last in the SEC Western Division by a poll of coaches. Through the first two months of the season the Crimson Tide (20-18 on April 19) played like a last-place team.

However, after establishing an identity as a potent offensive club and winning five consecutive SEC series to close the regular season, Alabama (34-26) was rewarded Monday with an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Alabama will play as the No. 3 seed in the Conway Regional hosted by Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C., against second-seeded East Carolina (40-19) on Friday at 6 p.m. Host Coastal Carolina (47-12) will face No. 4 seed Columbia (22-28), who won the Ivy League title, at noon.

The double-elimination event concludes Sunday with the champion advancing to a super regional.

Many projected the Tide would be placed in the Tallahassee Regional where it would have had to beat No. 3 ranked (USA Today/ESPN) Florida State to advance to the super regionals. To the Alabama players, it didn't matter where they were sent.

"The projections had us in Tallahassee, but in my experience, this is my third regional, the projections are always wrong," senior first baseman Matt Bentley said. "We've never went to the place they've projected us so you know we just sat here waiting for our name to be called. When it was called we were happy no matter where it was."

Alabama is making its 11th NCAA appearance in the last 14 years.

The Crimson Tide went 16-14 in league play and finished second in the West behind LSU. Alabama went 2-2 in the SEC Tournament at Hoover, posting wins over Kentucky and Georgia and losing to Kentucky and eventual champion LSU.

Crimson Tide coach Jim Wells said the team is confident heading into postseason play.

"We've been playing well offensively, been playing better defensively," Wells said. "We need to get our pitching in order. I think we can do that. Pretty much do what we did for that last five weeks."

Austin Hyatt (4-4, 4.64 ERA) likely will start Friday. In his last outing, he held the regular-season champion Georgia to four hits and pitched a complete game a 5-2 win. He retired 20 consecutive batters during one stretch.

Alabama hopes to get junior left-hander Miers Quigley back for this weekend to help bolster a struggling pitching staff. He missed the SEC Tournament with a back injury.

Wells said Del Howell's pitching performance in the Tide's 13-4 tournament win against Kentucky gives him more confidence to use the sophomore left-hander in the regional.

"I certainly, even if Quigley is healthy, feel alright bringing him in now," Wells said. "He's not a complete game guy. But he does throw hard. He is left handed. Maybe we play a team that is left-handed dominant. He basically threw fast balls right down the middle and a breaking ball down the middle to Kentucky, which is a really good club. They had a hard time catching up to him."

Regardless of who pitches, Alabama players remain steadfast in the momentum the team has created the second half of the season.

"Our team, we're not afraid of challenges," junior catcher Alex Avila said. "We've been challenged all season. We've battled back from pretty much being one of the worst teams in the SEC to being pretty good the last half of the season. The team has taken on a relentless approach every time we play."