| 06/02/05
– FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
USA
TO OPEN NCAA PLAY AGAINST IN-STATE RIVAL AUBURN ON FRIDAY
CONTACT-
Kevin Beasley
TALLAHASSEE,
Fla.-
The University of South Alabama baseball team will open play in
the Tallahassee Regional of
the 59th annual NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Tournament
Friday at Noon (Central) when they take on in-state foe and Southeastern
Conference member Auburn at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium.
Tournament
package prices are $30 for general admission seating and $45 for
reserved seating. Single-game tickets can be purchased the day of
the game. The game can be heard live on WNSP 105.5 FM or at wnsp.com.
Live stats for all of the Tallahassee Regional games can be viewed
at www.seminoles.com.
South
Alabama (35-25) and the Tigers (32-24) faced each other earlier
this season in which USA's P.J. Walters pitched a complete-game
3-0 shut out on the Plains. Auburn earned an at-large bid, even
though they did not participate in the SEC Tournement. The two programs
have never faced each other in postseason play.
The
Jags are making a return to the national tournament after failing
to earn an at-large bid a season ago. South Alabama earned the Sun
Belt Conference's automatic bid with a 9-2 victory over Middle Tennessee
in the conference championship game. The title is the 11th for the
Jags and the appearance in the tournament is the 23rd in the program's
history.
USA
continues to be led offensively by all-SBC tournament performers
David Freese and Josh Morgan. Freese leads the club in four diffferent
offensive categories, including batting average (.371) and Morgan
paces the club in home runs with 16. Morgan is coming off a solid
offensive performance at the SBC Tournament in which he hit .500
and belted our three home runs and a team-best nine RBI.
Auburn
is lead by first baseman Karl Amonite. Amonite leads the club in
batting average with a .361 clip and also tops the club in runs
driven in with 57. He also has belted 10 home runs. Josh Bell leads
the club in the long ball category with 11.
In
the second round of play, USA will take on either Army or Florida
State.
Florida
State (50-17) is making its 43rd overall NCAA appearance and 23rd
straight. The Seminoles are also hosting a regional for the ninth
straight year and since 1990 nobody has been invited to more NCAA
Regionals than Florida State. The Seminoles are 142-94 all-time
in NCAA Tournament play. Only three teams (Miami, Texas and USC)
have more NCAA Tournament wins than Florida State and only nine
schools in all of college baseball have more than 100 wins in NCAA
Tournament play.
The
Noles are led by Shane Robinson who is batting a blistering .439.
Robinson also tops the team in runs (91), hits (118), doubles (25),
triples (4) and total bases (166). He aslo has a team-high on-base
percentage of .539.
Army
(38-12) is led offensively by Walker Gorham, (.374), 10 home runs
and 40 RBI. Joining Gorham in the hitting category are Kyle Scogin,
Milan Dinga and Cole White, all batting over .344. As a team, the
Cadets are the only team over .300 in the regional. Army's pitching
staff has also been a strength as the Cadets are allowing just 2.98
earned runs per game. The ace of the staff is Nick Hill, a left-hander
who is 10-1 on the season with and ERA of 1.22. Army earned its
bid to regional play after capturing the Patriot League championship.
Saturday's
game with Florida State will be carried live on the SunSport Network.
Comments
from Thursday's pre-Tournament Press Conference
Head
Coach Steve Kittrell
University of South Alabama
Opening comments
First of all we were
Sun Belt Tournament Champions. Lafayette won the league. If we didn't
win the tournament, we wouldn't be sitting here today. It's exciting
to be here and it is a great feeling. Looking at all the statistics
for all the teams, everyone has an ERA under 4.00 except us so there's
some good pitching evidently. I know its going to be an outstanding
tournament. We were here two years ago and I know Florida State
runs a great regional. I wish FSU would let us get out of here with
a win once in awhile but you did a remarkable job of hosting last
year and you had a lot of stuff roped off. I haven't had time to
walk around yet but it looks outstanding. I just hope FSU doesn't
recruit the same guys we recruit. When you bring them into this
place it looks pretty good. It's exciting.
We've been an up and
down team this year - real erratic. We've been waiting for them
to get hot. We hope we've gotten that button pushed. The Sun Belt
Tournament we played our best baseball and played a really good
FIU team that we won 6-4 in a very emotional game. We saw some things
out of our guys that we hadn't seen this year so we're hoping we
can take some of that momentum into the regional. You know baseball,
who knows what happens. We're going to be up against some good competition
and we've got to rise to that occasion. We're excited to be here.
Can you talk about your
success against Auburn?
Well, yes and no. We've
been topped by Auburn many a times. I remember Bellhorn and several
guys going 5-for-5 and losing. They've got an outstanding program
and we beat them early in the year against their number three starter
and they are a very solid ball club. To be a two seed is a tribute
to who they play. They play Florida State plus a great SEC schedule.
We have beat them some and they've beaten us some.
Can you tell us about
the type of year pitcher P.J. Walters has put together?
PJ's our number one.
He's a battler, he's just a bulldog on the mound. He changes speeds
and works both sides of the plate. We haven't seen Auburn's top
two starters. I think that and their bullpen are among their strengths
and we haven't seen them. We know we're going to have our hands
full with whoever we face in this region. It is going to be a very
good one.
Has your team exceeded
expectations this year?
We never could get going.
We had some key injuries at times during the year when we were playing
some very good people. We never won more than four games this year
with the exception of the Sun Belt Tournament. We just hope we can
win five and now's a good time to do that.
Game
times: (Eastern)
USA vs. Auburn 1:00 p.m.
FSU vs. Army 7:00 p.m.
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