FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
TUSCALOOSA, Ala – The Alabama baseball team will play three more scrimmages this weekend at Sewell-Thomas Stadium as the Crimson Tide concludes its fourth week of fall practice.
The team is scheduled to play a nine-inning scrimmage on Friday, Oct. 23 at 2:15 p.m. and then host a pair of six-inning scrimmages on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. and Sunday, Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. The three scrimmages are free and open to the public.
“From a pitching perspective, we are doing a really good job of throwing strikes,” head coach Mitch Gaspard said. “We’ve really improved there and we want to continue to work on our location with our fastball. We’re really throwing mainly fastballs and changeups right now and just starting with the breaking balls. We will continue to pound home the location of what we want to do and getting a combination of pitchers and catchers on the same page and working together.”
The Tide is expected to use six pitchers on Friday, including sophomore left-hander Adam Morgan, freshman right-hander Trey Pilkington, junior right-hander Jimmy Nelson, freshman left-hander Taylor Wolfe, junior left-hander Jonathan Smart and junior right-hander Jason Townsend. All six pitchers are expected to throw three innings each.
On Saturday, freshman Tucker Hawley and sophomore Tyler White will throw three innings, while senior Adam Scott and freshmenAdam Windsor and Matt Taylor are expected to throw one or two innings each.
The weekend wraps up on Sunday with junior Brett Whitaker, sophomore James Tullidge and redshirt freshman Kelby Deermanscheduled to throw three innings, while senior Jake Smith and freshman Brett Booth will get one or two innings on the mound.
With six starters returning, Gaspard is pleased with the way the offense has progressed during his first fall camp.
“We’re really pleased obviously with our numbers right now offensively,’ Gaspard added. “You can see already that our power numbers are not going to be what they were, but on the flip side of that our strikeouts are really down and our doubles are way up. I think we are doing a much better job of execution and understanding what pressuring the defense is.”
Following the weekend scrimmages, the team will return to practice on Tuesday, Oct. 27 and hold three more scrimmages next weekend.
