Quigley has strong outing; readies for weekend start

TUSCALOOSA | It may have been Miers Quigley’s last mid-week start of the season — but he made the most of it.

Quigley, the junior left-handed pitcher for the University of Alabama, threw seven shutout innings as the Crimson Tide blanked Southeastern Louisiana 7-0 Wednesday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

In his past four appearances, covering 262⁄3 innings, Quigley has allowed just one earned run. He was working on a pitch count Wednesday night, throwing 90 pitches, which will allow him to join the Crimson Tide’s weekend rotation with a scheduled Sunday start in the upcoming SEC series at Tennessee.

“He’s pitched well in his last three or four appearances and he’s more effective as a starter than a reliever,” Alabama coach Jim Wells said of Quigley (4-1).

“We played a much cleaner game tonight than we have in the last three or four games.” Wells said. “We had some timely hitting, we didn’t commit any errors and we didn’t issue any walks in the game which is a huge improvement for us.”

Alabama (19-15) took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning on a sacrifice fly by shortstop Josh Rutledge and an RBI single by second baseman Ross Wilson.

In the fifth inning, Rutledge doubled – extending his active hitting streak to 10 games -- and eventually scored on an RBI single by Matt Bentley. The lead expanded to 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning as Alex Kubal delivered an RBI single, one of his three hits in the game.

A three-run eighth inning capped the scoring for the Crimson Tide, an inning highlighted by Tyler Odle’s steal of home plate on a double steal. Odle had reached base with an RBI single. UA left fielder Brandon May added an RBI double in the inning.

“I went through a stretch where I wasn’t seeing the ball very well,” said May, who has had nine hits in his last 14 at-bats. “I really started concentrating on that last Sunday when I had four hits and I have been seeing it well since then. Now we just need to carry it over into the weekend.”

Southeastern Louisiana (16-14) used eight different pitchers in the game. Phil White (0-1), the Lions’ second pitcher, took the loss.

Alex Avila, the Crimson Tide’s regular catcher, sat out for the second consecutive game with back spasms. His status for the weekend series at Tennessee is not certain.

Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225.