Jan. 20, 2009 - No. 1 USA vs. Alabama (April 22)

Thank you for taking the time to browse the baseball page. If you have a question or comment, please feel free to  e-mail me. The 2009 USA Baseball Season Outlook is now available online, as well as the latest edition of In the Dugout with ... featuring senior RHP Miles Ethridge.  Next up on the USA BaseBlog will be a series profiling each of the Jags' Sun Belt Conference opponents.  Look for the first edition later this week.

While it comes as no great surprise, South Alabama's meeting with the Crimson Tide takes the top spot in the Top 10 Countdown. The Jags play Alabama in a home-and-home series for the first time since 2000, but the April 22 game at Stanky Field ranks as the best game on USA's 2009 schedule.

When USA travels to Tuscaloosa a week after this game, the two teams will play for the 99th time, making the series the third-most played in South Alabama's history, behind only New Orleans and Western Kentucky.

The 98th meeting figures to be a great one, as the Jags try to win for the third straight time against the Crimson Tide. USA took last season's meeting 10-9 in 10 innings at Stanky Field, and won 5-4 in Tuscaloosa in 2007. Each of the last four meetings have been decided by one run, and the Jags last won three straight in the series in 1991. Alabama leads the all-time series 50-47, so with wins in both games in 2009, the Jags could pull to within one game of evening the series.

Both teams have had streaks of success in the series' history. Alabama won the first three meetings, but USA won 12 of 13 from 1969 through 1973. USA notched its third six-game winning streak from 1979 through 1981, but Alabama ended that streak with the beginning of its own six-game streak. The Jags won the next three, but Alabama won the four meetings after that, and neither team won more than three in a row until 1997, when Alabama took four straight. The Crimson Tide followed that streak with six-game and four-game winning streaks, helping it win 10 of 11 before the Jags took the two most recent meetings.

USA won 10-9 in 10 innings in its only game against the Tide in 2008. Michael Logan made the first start of his career and allowed one run on one hit in 2.0 innings. He surrendered a solo homer to freshman Ross Wilson in the first inning, but worked out of a jam stranding two runners before retiring the side in order in the second. He left with the lead after Chris Davis singled and Bunky Kateon delivered a two-run homer in the bottom of the second.

Miles Ethridge came on in relief and allowed six runs in 1.2 innings, but the Jags plated five more runs in the third to keep the game close. David Doss doubled in one run, then came home on a two-run double by Ryne Jernigan before Ryan Bohanan delivered an opposite field two-run blast. Travis Johnson worked 2.1 innings and allowed one run to head to the keep the Alabama lead at one run heading to the bottom of the sixth. USA plated two more runs and took a 9-8 lead to the top of the ninth, but Greg Johnson surrendered a solo homer to Alex Avila to tie the game. After a single, Johnson recovered to get a double-play grounder and send the game to the bottom of the ninth tied at 9-9.

USA went down in order, but after Johnson worked a scoreless 10th, Jake Overstreet led off with an infield single and advanced to second on a bunt single from Ray Kruml. Overstreet was replaced at second by pinch runner Russell Harben, and Clint Toomey brought Harben home with a walk-off single up the middle. A season-high 2,363 fans came out to see the Jags walk-off win.

This season's Alabama team should be a solid one. In Baseball America's preseason rankings released today, the Tide ranked third among SEC schools at No. 21. Additionally, the Tide took the final ranking at No. 40 in Collegiate Baseball's preseason poll, while the Tide weren't ranked in the top 35, but did receive votes in the NCBWA poll.

Alabama returns seven of nine position starters off a 35-28 team that took third place at the NCAA Conway, S.C. Regional a season ago. Among those seven returners is sophomore shortstop Josh Rutledge, who earned Freshman All-America honors after hitting .369 with 16 steals and 62 runs in 61 games in his first year of collegiate baseball. The Tide also return first-team All-SEC honoree Brandon May (.365, 9 HR, 50 RBI), and second baseman Ross Wilson, who hit an Alabama freshman record 15 home runs in 2008.

You might remember Wilson from his days playing football at Hoover High School, where he was featured in the MTV show Two-A-Days. He's also the younger brother of Tide quarterback John Parker Wilson.

While Alabama returns plenty of offense, it returns only six pitchers, one of which had an ERA under 5.25 last season. Austin Hyatt (5-4, 4.53 ERA, 14 starts) figures to be the ace of the Tide staff, while Miers Quigley (5-4, 5.58 ERA, 12 starts) and Casey Kebodeaux (2-5, 6.64 ERA, 7 starts) also could contend for spots in the weekend rotation.

With the lack of experience and only six returners, Alabama brought in four junior college pitchers to help fill some holes in its staff. Lefties Scott Hays (7-3, 2.91 at Odessa College) and David Head (8-3, 2.83 at Chattahoochee Valley CC) join a pair of right-handers from Shelton State CC in Adam Scott (13-5, 3.01) and Jonathon Smart (19-4, 2.55) to give the Tide some much-needed experience on the mound.

If last season's meeting was any indication, this game should be one of the best of the season, and will likely repeat as the largest crowd of the year at Stanky Field. Mark it on your calendars and be sure to come out and support the Jags as they take on Alabama in one of the best games of the season.

Notes:  USA is 47-50 in the all-time series vs. Alabama ... The Jags are 29-17 at Stanky Field and 18-33 in Tuscaloosa ... USA and Alabama have met just once in the postseason, when the Tide won 9-3 to eliminate USA from the 1996 NCAA Tuscaloos Regional ... Despite the close proximity of the schools, only a small number of players from USA are from the same hometowns as the players from Alabama ... Jag freshman OF Matt Drake and Alabama sophomore SS Josh Rutledge both attended Cullman High School in Cullman, Ala. ... USA Freshman OF Brad Montgomery played on the same team as Tide freshman LHP Kelby Deerman at Madison Academy.

TOP 10 GAMES OF 2009 COUNTDOWN