Tide Wins Fourth Straight

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The Alabama Crimson Tide traveled t0 Huntsville to play the Austin Peay Governors on Tuesday and came away with a 6-2 victory to improve to 19-7 on the season. Austin Peay fell to 12-13 with the loss. The Tide used a stellar performance from their bullpen, some wildness from AP pitchers, and a hand full of timely hits to secure the victory. Coming off a sweep of 18th ranked Florida over the weekend Bama was understandable a little bit flat out of the gate.

JT Blackwood got the nod on the mound for the Tide against home town boy and Bob Jones HS graduate Dillion Adkins for Austin Peay. Paris Pridgen hit the first pitch from Blackwood for a double and then stole third base. Blackwood got a ground ball back to the mound and two strikeouts to end the inning without allowing the run. In the bottom half of the first Adkins walked Bryce Fowler, Justin LeBron, Brady Neal, and Jason Torres all in a row to drive in a run before being replaced by Chance Cox. Adkins threw 20 pitches and 16 of them were balls. Will Plattner hit a sacrifice fly, driving in LeBron for a 2-0 lead. Justin Osterhouse popped out to the mound while trying to bunt in another run and a strikeout ended the inning with a 2-0 Bama lead.

Blackwood allowed a one out single in the 2nd, but retired the next two men. Cox retired the Tide in order in the bottom half. Trevor Conley blasted a double to lead off the top of the 3rd for the Governors and moved to third on a sac bunt by Pridgen. A ground out scored Conley before Ray Velazquez smoked a long home run to left field to tie the game. When Blackwood walked the next man he was replaced by Connor Lehman who needed only one pitch to induce a ground ball to end the inning with the game tied 2-2.

Cox went easily through the Tide order in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, innings, facing only nine batters, and Bama was still hitless through four innings. Lehman hit a batter and walked a man in the third, but struck out two and kept the visitors off the board.

The Tide finally got to Cox in the bottom of the 5th frame. Luke Vaughn and Brennan Holt hit back to back doubles with Holt’s hit bringing Vaughn home to give Bama the lead. After Fowler grounded back to the mound sending Holt to third, Peay walked LeBron intentionally. LeBron stole second base for his 22nd steal of the year with out being caught. Torres then blasted a double to right field to score two and make the score 5-2. Plattner and Osterhouse walked to load the bases but the rally was stymied when a hard line drive by Peyton Steele was snagged by Velasquez at third base.

Austin Morris pitched the 6th for the Tide and had a perfect inning with two strikeouts. Bama got a walk to Holt and single by Fowler in the bottom half but could not score. Owen Sarna replaced Morris on the mound for the 7th and allowed only an infield single. Sarna had a perfect 8th with a strikeout, a fly out, a line out to shortstop that LeBron dove to his right to snare and end the inning. Johnny Lemm pinch hit for the Tide in the bottom of the 8th and singled. JoJo Williamson pinch ran for Lemm and moved up on a single by Holt before scoring on a Fowler infield single. Evan Steckmesser pitched the 9th for Bama and allowed a one out single but ended the game with a ground out and a strikeout, securing the Alabama 6-2 win.

After collecting 28 hits in the three game sweep of Florida last weekend, the Tide could only manage a 7-29 night at the plate on Tuesday. Bama walked eight times, struck out seven times, and left eight men on base. Fowler and Holt were both 2-4 with a double, run scored, and RBI. Fowler added a walk. Torres was 1-3 with a double, walk, and three runs driven in. LeBron was 0-2 with two walks, two runs, and a stolen base. Plattner had the other run driven in with a sac fly. Lehman was the winning pitcher, the first win of his career. The bullpen combination of Lehman, Morris, Sarna, and Steckmesser pitched 6.1 innings, allowing two hits, one walk, one hit batter, and six strikeouts.

The Tide took care of business when several highly ranked teams did not. Georgia took a loss to Kennesaw State, Houston came back from a 7-0 hole to defeat Texas 9-7, Campbell beat NC State, and Memphis beat Ole Miss. This season in particular there seems to be more of these type losses. Coming off the emotional sweep of Florida over the weekend it would have been easy to mail it in last night, but the Tide did what they needed to do. Florida gave the Alabama an RPI bump by winning over 5th ranked FSU last night 5-0.

Up next is the “IBOB”, Iron Bowl of Baseball this weekend. The Tide welcomes 6th ranked Tigers to Sewell-Thomas for games at 6 p.m. on Friday, 7 p.m. on Saturday, and Sunday at 1 p.m. Bama needs to ride the momentum they have built after bouncing back from being swept by Kentucky in the opening weekend of SEC play.

Roll Tide

Bama Baseball Fever, Catch it! ️

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