Baseball: Vanderbilt wins College World Series opener | 6C
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S U N D A Y , J U N E 15 , 2014
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SECTION C
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WOMEN’S STATE AMATEUR
U.S. OPEN
CECIL HURT
Kaymer protects Open lead
UA baseball taking steps in right direction
By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press
T
he Ole Miss Rebels make their first appearance in the College World Series in 42 years today, a nice story for the Southeastern Conference — and another firm nudge to the Alabama baseball program. The Crimson Tide hasn’t been to Omaha since 1999. That isn’t the longest drought in the SEC. Auburn hasn’t been since 1997. Missouri hasn’t been in 50 years and Kentucky has never been, although the Wildcats made a decent run this year. Still, 15 years is a lengthy stretch for a program that was making trips regularly in the late 1990s. And the other 10 SEC teams have all been since the turn of the century. That’s not to say Alabama isn’t trying. The investment in a new baseball stadium should be a major step forward, perhaps pushing Alabama back to the next level that so many of its spring sports — golf, women’s tennis, softball and, this weekend, a nicely resurgent track program — have either achieved or are approaching. Next year will not be easy, with the SEC home games relegated to Hoover while the construction on the new stadium proceeds. On top of that, due to draft and injury, Alabama will have to rebuild its entire weekend pitching rotation. There are solid arms available, but whether they will be able to reach the level of Spencer Turnbull and Justin Kamplain remains to be seen. Softball faces a similar reconstruction with the loss of workhorse Jaclyn Traina, although there are experienced arms and a top recruit on tap for 2015. Offensively, Alabama should have potential but needs to tap that potential instead of spending another frustrating year at the plate. Overall, though, baseball had an acceptable year, given its sporadic offense. This isn’t meant to be any sort of ultimatum. It’s just that Ole Miss, a good program (and one that has been in a new stadium for more than a decade, proving that while that can help, it is not an automatic magic wand), is a reminder. Fifteen years can slip to 20, then 25, and then, like Ole Miss, you’re going to Nebraska for the first time in a generation. For the most part, though, it was a good spring for Alabama athletics, capped by two individual championships in track this weekend. It continued a remarkable trend of the last four years. Jay Seawell led men’s golf to a second straight national title, and softball took a second trip to the Women’s College World Series in three years. Those programs (like football and gymnastics) aren’t going to win every year, but they are at a level where they are competitive every year. That’s where baseball needs to be. It isn’t that far off, and when the step is made, the trips to Omaha will come, not every year, but frequently enough, the way LSU (which didn’t make it this year) and Vanderbilt (which did) and others have done. There has been little said, in the recent economic discussions that have swirled around the evolving NCAA, about the potential impact on spring sports. The financial support that has helped those sports flourish won’t go away but it may not be the same, just as nothing else in the NCAA will be the same. For the foreseeable future, though, Alabama will have the resources and the desire to return to the top in baseball, before a lengthy drought turns into 40 years of wandering in the desert.
Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil@ tidesports.com or 205-722-0225.
PHOTO | ALABAMA ATHLETICS
Alabama golfer Cammie Gray, of Northport, will attempt to defend her State Amateur crown this week at NorthRiver Yacht Club.
Match queen Crimson Tide’s Gray knows a thing or two about winning in match-play format. She puts her skills to the test again in a bid for a second straight Women’s State Amateur championship. By Tommy Deas Executive Sports Editor
Cammie Gray hasn’t yet met her match, at least not in Alabama. T he Universit y of A labama golfer from Northport, who just completed her redshirt freshman season with the Crimson Tide, is the two-time defending champion in the State Match Play Championships and defending champion in the Women’s State Amateur, which also features the match-play format. She also made it to the round of 16 in match play in last summer’s U.S. Amateur. Gray will defend her Women’s State A mateur championship Wednesday through Friday at NorthRiver Yacht Club, but she isn’t leaning on last year’s titlewinning performance.
“I know there are going to be people who come up to me and like, ‘Oh, defending champ, blahblah-blah,’ because I’ve had people do that in the past,” she said, “But if they ask me questions about it I say the same thing: It’s the same goal, one shot at a time, it’s about going out there and doing my best.” Collegiate golfers don’t get the benefit of much match play — a format that pits two golfers head to head, playing for one point for each hole they win regardless of their overall number of strokes. Gray might have gained her edge in match play while playing with her father, former UA quarterback Alan Gray. “I’ve just always loved match play,” she said. “I haven’t played it a ton in competition, but I’ve always
played it with my dad so I knew how to do it. It’s fun to have that to fall back on.” Gray made major strides last summer with her wins in state competition and her run at the U.S. Amateur. She encountered match play situations that tested her mettle. In the Women’s State Amateur a year ago, she was ahead in one match and dropped the last four holes to end up even. She gathered herself to win the extra hole. “ That was one I remember thinking, that kind of shows what your character is because when you get beat four holes in a row when you’re up that much and you go into a playoff ... that was time to see what my inner self is,” she said. SEE GRAY | 4C
PINEHURST, N.C. | Not even Martin Kaymer was immune from a Pinehurst No. 2 course that restored the reputation of a U.S. Open. He threw enough counterpunches Saturday to leave him on the cusp of his second major. On a broiling day with some wicked pin positions that yielded only two rounds under par, Kaymer rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to salvage a 2-over 72 and take a fi ve-shot lead into the fi nal round. Only one player in U.S. Open history has lost a five-shot lead in the fi nal round, and that was 95 years go. “I didn’t play as well as the fi rst two days, but I kept it together,” Kaymer said. That was all that was required on a day when the U.S. Open finally looked like the toughest test in golf. Kaymer hit a 7-iron from the sandy area left of the fairway on the par-5 fi fth hole to set up a 5-foot eagle putt, and his birdie on the fi nal hole put him at 8-under 202. Only the names of challengers changed, but they were sure to stir up the crowd — and the emotions. Erik Compton, a two-time heart transplant recipient and perhaps the most remarkable story on the PGA Tour, rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt SEE OPEN | 3C
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Martin Kaymer scrambled to shoot 2-over Saturday in the third round of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, N.C. He shot a pair of 5-unders in the opening rounds. He leads the Open by five shots.
INSIDE THIRD ROUND: U.S. Open scores | 3C
KILLIAN-WINDHAM INVITATIONAL
Tuscaloosa Post 34 roughed up by Post 70, former coach By Nolan Imsande Special to The Tuscaloosa News
STAFF PHOTO | MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER
Tuscaloosa Post 34’s Ryan Cross (17) slides safely into second base as Troy Post 70’s Austin Fain, right, bobbles the ball as Hunter Baggett looks on during Saturday’s game at Tuscaloosa Academy.
The Tuscaloosa Post 34 American Legion baseball team struggled in its first game of the Killian-Windham Invitational on Saturday at Tuscaloosa Academy. Post 34 went down 12-1 to Troy Post 70 after falling behind 6-0 after just two innings. Post 34 gave up two walks, four hits and made two errors to allow the six runs to come across in the second. Post 34 also committed two errors in a four-run sixth inning. “Defensively, all summer, we have been pretty good,” Post 34 coach Patrick Jones said. “It is just one of those days. It seemed like for all the great plays we have made for the fi rst five ballgames, we decided we were going to kick a few today. Against a team like that, they can swing it pretty good. They will make you pay for stuff like that.” Post 70’s offense was led to victory by Joey Denison, who recently fi nished his freshman year at Southern Union Community College. He went 3-for-3 with two home runs. Post 70 coach John Rushing said the team will rely on Denison for offense this year.
“That is what we expect Joey to do,” Rushing said. “He’s a guy that is going to be in the heart of our lineup all year long. We are looking to him to put up numbers like that.” Despite the six-run second inning, Post 34’s Reid Ryan was solid on the mound. Ryan pitched a perfect third and fourth inning until handing the ball to Tanner Ary, who gave up two runs in the fifth inning and four runs in the sixth. “We gave Ary a chance to throw there. He hadn’t had a chance to throw for us all summer,” Jones said. “He was probably a little nervous, you know, first time out there for us all summer. It is different pitching in this ballpark because it is small. You’ve got to learn how to work down and stuff but he will get better at it.” Rushing, who was head coach for Post 34 before leaving three years ago and had Jones as an assistant coach, said there is no rivalry between the two. “Now it is just another ballgame that we play,” Rushing said. “But it is always fun to come back and play in this tournament because this is a tournament that we started back when I was here for two men that were great supporters of Post 34 ball and also great supports of everything that I was doing.”