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Alabama vs Kennesaw State: Game 1 Thread

The first game of the regional starts today at 12PM. Bookmark this page for all of your coverage needs and make sure to bookmark our Regional Stream which will be updated continuously throughout the weekend. Of course there will be a thread for every game this weekend as @dtackett_@AriyaMassoudi and @RodMahoney (myself) will be there in Tallahassee, follow us for all the play by play and updates.

OFFENSE:

2014 SEASON STATISTICS - OVERALL
TEAM GP SB % K% BB% Rsco% R/G AVG OBP SLG OPS BABIP IsoP
Alabama 56 71.1% 16.8% 7.5% 34.3% 5.1 0.278 0.350 0.390 0.740 0.321 0.112
Kennesaw State 58 74.0% 13.4% 7.5% 40.6% 6.2 0.301 0.362 0.403 0.766 0.340 0.103
as of 5/29/14

Outside of some power, second to only Kentucky in homeruns within the SEC, there is not much that Alabama does well. They struggled to score last season and that has continued in 2014 with an unimpressive on-base percentage and the fact that they strike out more than twice as much than they walk. The offensive leaders for the Tide are All SEC Team members Ben Moore (.305/.363/.486) and Wade Wass (.305/.398/.468), the right fielder Moore leads the team with 9 homeruns while Wass, the designated hitter is more free swinging.

There is no questioning the Owls Max Pentacost (.423/.477/.634), a talented, probable first round draft pick that is a huge threat in the middle of the lineup. Hitting cleanup for Kennesaw State is center fielder Bo Way (.364/.414/.481) who is also a threat on the base paths, he has been successful in 10 of 13 attempts. Every other starter in the lineup has struck out more than they have walked and all possess an on-base percentage of .350 or lower.

2014 SEASON STATISTICS - ALABAMA
TEAM GP GS PA SB % K% BB% Rsco% R/G AVG OBP SLG OPS BABIP IsoP
Mikey White 56 56 262 60.0% 14.9% 8.8% 39.6% 0.8 0.303 0.397 0.440 0.837 0.341 0.138
Georgie Salem 56 56 261 66.7% 11.9% 3.8% 34.1% 0.5 0.288 0.329 0.358 0.688 0.324 0.071
Ben Moore 56 56 251 80.0% 6.4% 6.4% 40.7% 0.8 0.305 0.363 0.486 0.849 0.290 0.182
Wade Wass 56 55 236 100.0% 19.1% 9.3% 26.7% 0.5 0.305 0.398 0.468 0.866 0.374 0.163
Kyle Overstreet 55 55 234 0.0% 12.0% 7.7% 42.5% 0.6 0.278 0.339 0.376 0.715 0.303 0.098
Austen Smith 52 52 216 83.3% 16.7% 12.5% 23.3% 0.5 0.316 0.426 0.480 0.905 0.353 0.164
Chance Vincent 51 48 187 100.0% 11.2% 6.4% 33.3% 0.4 0.253 0.301 0.301 0.602 0.277 0.048
Casey Hughston 47 42 165 0.0% 29.1% 3.0% 27.7% 0.4 0.282 0.313 0.423 0.736 0.385 0.141
Will Haynie 35 32 123 #DIV/0! 41.5% 5.7% 48.0% 0.4 0.177 0.231 0.274 0.506 0.288 0.097
Hunter Webb 39 24 101 83.3% 12.9% 6.9% 29.4% 0.3 0.265 0.358 0.301 0.659 0.314 0.036
Daniel Cucjen 31 15 63 66.7% 19.0% 15.9% 37.5% 0.3 0.288 0.397 0.346 0.743 0.350 0.058
Mathew Goodson 12 3 23 #DIV/0! 30.4% 8.7% 20.0% 0.1 0.158 0.217 0.158 0.375 0.214 0.000
William Elliott 10 3 18 #DIV/0! 44.4% 0.0% 50.0% 0.1 0.111 0.111 0.111 0.222 0.200 0.000
J.C. Wilhite 8 2 14 #DIV/0! 7.1% 7.1% 50.0% 0.3 0.100 0.286 0.100 0.386 0.100 0.000
Ryan Blanchard 7 3 13 #DIV/0! 23.1% 7.7% 25.0% 0.1 0.250 0.308 0.250 0.558 0.333 0.000
Taylor Poe 10 1 10 #DIV/0! 40.0% 10.0% 66.7% 0.2 0.222 0.300 0.222 0.522 0.400 0.000
Steven Cole 8 0 9 #DIV/0! 11.1% 11.1% 33.3% 0.1 0.250 0.333 0.250 0.583 0.286 0.000
Mitch Greer 6 1 9 #DIV/0! 33.3% 11.1% 0.0% 0.0 0.000 0.111 0.000 0.111 0.000 0.000
Riley Colburn 8 0 5 #DIV/0! 40.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0 0.333 0.600 0.333 0.933 1.000 0.000
Colton Freeman 2 0 0 #DIV/0! ##### ##### ##### 1.0 ##### ##### ##### ##### ##### #####
TOTALS 56 56 2200 80.0% 16.8% 7.5% 34.3% 5.1 0.278 0.350 0.390 0.740 0.321 0.112
as of 5/29/14
KENNESAW STATE
TEAM GP GS PA SB % K% BB% Rsco% R/G AVG OBP SLG OPS BABIP IsoP
Simmons, Kal 56 56 279 75.0% 10.0% 7.5% 44.0% 0.7 0.272 0.336 0.313 0.649 0.300 0.041
Pentecost, Max 58 58 278 88.9% 8.6% 8.6% 39.0% 1.0 0.423 0.477 0.634 1.111 0.440 0.211
Bruce, Jacob 57 56 268 62.5% 10.4% 5.2% 59.3% 0.9 0.286 0.336 0.374 0.710 0.318 0.088
Way, Bo 54 53 242 76.9% 7.4% 6.6% 38.5% 0.7 0.364 0.414 0.481 0.895 0.386 0.117
McGowan, Chris 56 53 231 66.7% 16.0% 7.8% 32.9% 0.5 0.281 0.339 0.394 0.733 0.319 0.113
Morgan, Brennan 51 48 215 66.7% 13.0% 7.4% 47.9% 0.7 0.279 0.350 0.395 0.745 0.306 0.116
Liquori, Alex 47 45 191 63.6% 18.8% 8.4% 43.6% 0.7 0.363 0.422 0.518 0.940 0.455 0.155
Bahnick, Matt 44 41 159 100.0% 18.2% 5.0% 22.2% 0.3 0.271 0.303 0.354 0.657 0.319 0.083
Nixon, Cornell 42 33 133 75.0% 18.8% 6.8% 35.1% 0.3 0.216 0.289 0.234 0.523 0.267 0.018
Ivey, Dylan 31 24 95 100.0% 22.1% 6.3% 38.1% 0.3 0.167 0.228 0.167 0.395 0.219 0.000
Howell, Jeremy 42 18 82 #DIV/0! 15.9% 12.2% 14.3% 0.1 0.152 0.273 0.152 0.424 0.189 0.000
Bennett, Colin 22 13 69 100.0% 18.8% 18.8% 23.3% 0.4 0.315 0.464 0.426 0.890 0.385 0.111
Motley, Justin 34 11 67 50.0% 14.9% 3.0% 45.5% 0.3 0.288 0.343 0.441 0.784 0.320 0.153
Wynn, Clint 13 7 34 #DIV/0! 14.7% 5.9% 72.7% 0.6 0.281 0.324 0.344 0.667 0.333 0.063
Erwin, Chris 22 14 24 #DIV/0! 8.3% 4.2% 22.2% 0.1 0.333 0.391 0.476 0.867 0.368 0.143
Britt, Eric 6 0 2 #DIV/0! 0.0% 50.0% ##### 0.2 0.000 0.500 0.000 0.500 0.000 0.000
Banks, jonathan 1 0 1 #DIV/0! ##### 0.0% ##### 0.0 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 ##### 0.000
Hawkins, Kendall 8 3 0 #DIV/0! ##### ##### ##### 0.1 ##### ##### ##### ##### ##### #####
TOTALS 58 58 2370 74.0% 13.4% 7.5% 40.6% 6.2 0.301 0.362 0.403 0.766 0.340 0.103
as of 5/29/14

PITCHING:

2014 SEASON STATISTICS - OVERALL
TEAM G IP ERA WHIP H/9 K/9 BB/9 K:BB FIP xERA BABIP BAA OPSa
Alabama 56 501.3 3.29 1.25 7.38 6.89 3.86 1.79 4.03 2.91 0.276 0.228 0.626
Kennesaw State 58 532.0 3.54 1.39 9.14 7.36 3.37 2.19 3.62 3.68 0.325 0.264 0.672
as of 5/29/14

As a staff Alabama is not great, their strikeouts per nine is not strong (they do have groundball pitchers) but a walks per nine approaching four is bad for business especially when you have three teams in your region with strong offenses. The Tide are led by Spencer Turnbilll (87 IP/1.16 WHIP/6.10 K/9) who allows very few hits but walks an extremely large number of batters while All ACC honors were awarded to freshman reliever Thomas Burrows (33.1 IP/0.87 WHIP/8.64 K/9) .

Kennesaw State pitchers have been on the bad end of some horrid defense behind them, you are able to tell that from their poor fielding percentage and the fact that their pitchers have a high BABIP (batting average on balls in play). The do have some fantastic bullpen arms in James Connell (42.2/1.28 WHIP/8.53 K/9) and Justin McCalvin (56.1 IP/1.02 WHIP/8.98 K/9) , it will be very interesting to see how they are used if their starting pitchers find themselves in trouble early.

PROBABLES:
PITCHING PROBABLES - GAME 1 - Alabama vs. Kennesaw State
TEAM G GS IP ERA WHIP H/9 K/9 BB/9 K:BB HR/9 FIP BABIP BAA OPSa
Jordan Hillyer - KSU 15 15 93.2 3.38 1.33 9.08 6.86 2.90 2.37 0.00 3.22 0.319 0.260 0.647
Spencer Turnbull  - UA 14 14 87.0 2.28 1.16 6.00 6.10 4.45 1.37 0.31 4.44 0.230 0.193 0.576

Holder

2014 SEASON STATISTICS - ALABAMA
TEAM G GS IP ERA WHIP H/9 K/9 BB/9 K:BB HR/9 FIP BABIP BAA OPSa
Spencer Turnbull 14 14 87.0 2.28 1.16 6.00 6.10 4.45 1.37 0.31 4.44 0.230 0.193 0.576
Justin Kamplain 14 14 82.0 3.07 1.06 6.59 7.24 2.96 2.44 0.55 3.99 0.244 0.206 0.582
Jon Keller 13 8 66.7 2.57 1.13 7.70 6.48 2.43 2.67 0.14 3.25 0.296 0.241 0.621
Nick Eicholtz 20 9 51.0 3.35 1.33 6.18 7.06 5.82 1.21 0.35 5.01 0.239 0.197 0.614
Geoffrey Bramblett 16 4 38.7 4.19 1.24 7.22 9.78 3.96 2.47 0.23 3.21 0.306 0.221 0.585
Tucker Hawley 13 3 37.3 1.93 1.04 7.23 5.79 2.17 2.67 0.00 2.86 0.273 0.226 0.551
Ray Castillo 17 3 35.3 5.09 1.67 9.93 6.62 5.09 1.30 1.02 5.54 0.324 0.285 0.801
Jay Shaw 21 0 34.0 3.97 1.44 8.74 4.50 4.24 1.06 0.00 3.83 0.295 0.258 0.619
Thomas Burrows 22 0 33.3 1.62 0.87 5.13 8.64 2.70 3.20 0.27 3.06 0.225 0.173 0.472
Taylor Guilbeau 14 0 15.7 5.17 2.17 13.21 8.04 6.32 1.27 0.00 4.31 0.442 0.348 0.856
Mitch Greer 11 0 10.7 6.75 1.69 11.81 6.75 3.38 2.00 1.69 5.48 0.364 0.341 0.920
Jake Hubbard 5 1 5.0 7.20 1.80 10.80 7.20 5.40 1.33 1.80 6.22 0.313 0.300 0.875
Colton Freeman 3 0 2.3 19.29 2.14 7.72 11.57 11.57 1.00 0.00 4.71 0.333 0.222 0.861
Kyle Overstreet 2 0 1.3 13.50 3.00 20.26 6.75 6.75 1.00 0.00 4.17 0.500 0.429 1.214
Cary Baxter 1 0 1.0 0.00 1.00 9.00 0.00 0.00 ##### 0.00 3.42 0.333 0.333 0.667
TOTALS 56 56 501.3 3.29 1.25 7.38 6.89 3.86 1.79 0.36 4.03 0.276 0.228 0.626
as of 5/29/14


2014 SEASON STATISTICS - KENNESAW STATE
TEAM G GS IP ERA WHIP H/9 K/9 BB/9 K:BB HR/9 FIP BABIP BAA OPSa
Hillyer, Jordan 15 15 93.2 3.38 1.33 9.08 6.86 2.90 2.37 0.00 3.22 0.319 0.260 0.647
Bergen, Travis 14 14 82.0 2.74 1.22 9.66 7.68 1.32 5.83 0.11 2.53 0.344 0.272 0.625
Friese, Gabe 16 7 65.2 3.31 1.26 9.25 5.25 2.07 2.53 0.41 3.82 0.292 0.261 0.640
McCalvin, Justin 35 0 56.1 2.25 1.02 6.26 8.98 2.89 3.11 0.32 3.01 0.266 0.202 0.534
Harsh, Nathan 15 8 48.1 5.24 1.58 9.73 7.30 4.49 1.63 0.19 4.13 0.345 0.280 0.718
Erwin, Chris 15 8 42.2 3.20 1.61 9.38 7.04 5.12 1.38 0.21 4.44 0.328 0.268 0.703
Connell, James 33 0 42.2 2.13 1.28 8.53 12.58 2.99 4.21 0.21 2.50 0.371 0.242 0.622
McArthur, Cole 14 1 28.2 5.11 1.88 12.13 4.79 4.79 1.00 1.60 6.36 0.355 0.342 0.959
Solomon, Will 16 1 24.0 5.25 1.50 10.13 7.50 3.38 2.22 0.38 3.67 0.329 0.278 0.724
Austin, Andrew 13 0 13.2 7.50 2.12 12.27 4.09 6.82 0.60 0.00 5.47 0.367 0.333 0.845
Hawkins, Kendall 6 3 13.1 2.75 1.91 11.68 5.50 5.50 1.00 0.00 4.72 0.354 0.309 0.800
Ward, Mason 10 0 10.1 4.46 1.58 6.24 7.13 8.02 0.89 0.00 4.81 0.226 0.189 0.563
Lowman, Will 10 1 8.2 5.49 1.95 6.59 9.88 10.98 0.90 0.00 4.88 0.300 0.207 0.652
Bancroft, Benjamin 1 0 2.0 13.50 2.00 13.50 13.50 4.50 3.00 0.00 1.92 0.500 0.333 0.733
TOTALS 58 58 527.8 3.56 1.40 9.21 7.42 3.39 2.19 0.26 3.62 0.325 0.264 0.672
as of 5/29/14


COVERAGE:

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