By Andrew Wallace
(photo credit: Kalyn Wright Davis: UA)
TUSCALOOSA — Opening weekend had its highs and lows for the University of Alabama baseball team.
After a rain delay on Friday that interrupted staff ace Spencer Turnbull’s initial outing led to a Bama loss, the Tide turned things around in the series, earning two consecutive wins to close the weekend against Saint Louis University.
Turnbull started the game with three straight shutout innings, including four strikeouts, no walks and only one hit. Due to the length of the weather delay, he had to finish his appearance indoors in order to maintain a consistent pitch count.
“Spencer really was unhittable for three innings. Velocity up at 96,” said head coach Mitch Gaspard.
UA came into this season ranked #21 before dropping their season opener and sliding to #27. Lucky for the team, preseason rankings are about as useless in sports as kindling is without a spark.
That aforementioned lack of a metaphorical spark may literally be what caused a sluggish start. Gaspard elaborated on his desire for more consistency from the first spot in his lineup.
“That’s the one thing we are searching for in our line up, that true leadoff hitter. I feel like one through nine we can be a fairly physical offense, but we need that table setter up front who can grind for us and do dirty work to get on base and really ignite the offense. I thought Hunter Webb came in and did a good job. [He] is certainly the best runner on our team.”
Gaspard was generally happy about his team’s performance at the plate, but had several suggestions as to how Bama can improve. “They commanded the strike zone and kept the ball away. Our focus this week has been handling the ball in the outer third [of the plate].”
Shortstop Mikey White admonished upon this start. “Our approach is always to stay in the middle of the field. That fastball away, we were trying to get around it and do too much with it. That’s what we’ve been working on this week. Trying to drive it the other way and put it in that right-center gap.”
Practice concludes Thursday for Bama as attention turns to the Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin. “They hit the ball pretty well this past weekend,” said pitcher Justin Kamplain. Kamplain is expected to start Saturday’s game with Turnbull firing off the mound Friday and Ray Castillo slated for Sunday.
Gaspard addressed his third starter with optimism, but also factored in the reality of his performance of late. “Ray is a guy where we are doing some things this week in the pen. We gotta clean up some things and get him going. He needs to be a factor on this staff. We knew going in he has struggled the last couple weeks in scrimmages, so we really want to see him get down the right road here this weekend.”
Opening week is never easy. With the increase in offense (one run in the opener, four in the second game, and nine in the series finale) Bama needs to keep moving forward. The team looks primed to make a run in the SEC and with Gaspard at the helm the season remains more than promising.
Friday’s game starts at 6:05 and Saturday’s at 2:05. Sunday’s first pitch will be at 1:05 pm with pre-game coverage starting at 1pm on WVUA Radio 90.7FM. I will have the call, joined by my friend and colleague Seth Juneac.
Below are interviews with Coach Gaspard, junior pitcher Justin Kamplain and sophomore infielder Mikey White.
