“They return their entire rotation from last year and six starters,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. “Really just watching a little bit on tape and going back to last year with what they did, they are a very complete, well-coached team… Should be a really good matchup, especially for us coming off of last weekend.”
The weekend rotation will be the same for Alabama. Senior left-hander Taylor Guilbeau will start Friday’s game, junior righty Will Carter will pitch Saturday and sophomore right-hander Geoffrey Bramblett will get the ball in Sunday’s finale. All three pitched at least six innings and allowed zero runs in their first starts of the season last weekend.
Alabama looks to stay on track offensively. The Crimson Tide scored more than six runs in all three games against UMES and scored 19 in the series finale.
“We were rewarded for a lot of efforts we put forth last weekend, which was good to see,” Gaspard said. “I think we have a lot of good building blocks to takeaway and moving forward into the season.”
Sophomore Casey Hughston was one of the offensive catalysts in the first series. He hit .846 (11-for-13) with three doubles, a triple and eight RBI. Junior second baseman Kyle Overstreet hit .545 (6-for-11) with two doubles and 10 RBI in the first three games of the season.
“It’s just our approach, our whole team is hitting really good right now,” Hughston said. “We’ve got to stick to the approach we are taking at the plate and just keep grinding it out.”
Friday’s game starts at 6:30 p.m.
