The 12th ranked Crimson Tide stayed undefeated in midweek games by defeating #23 Southern Miss on Tuesday night by a score of 10-5. The Tide improved to 28-6 while the Golden Eagles fell to 22-11
Coming off a series loss at Auburn, the 12th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide got back on track by defeating the 23rd ranked Southern Miss Golden Eagles on Tuesday night. The Tide won the game 10-6 and improved to 28-6 while the Eagles fell to 22-11 on the season.
Alabama started Aeden Finateri on the mound against the visitors Matt Adams. Finateri is a senior right handed Georgia Tech transfer while Adams is a right handed sixth year graduate student.
Both teams were scoreless in the first and the Eagles got on the board first in the top of the second. Finateri hit Davis Gillespie leading off the frame and followed with a walk to Carson Paetow. Drey Barrett hit a ground ball the Tide third baseman Jason Torres snared, stepped on third, and threw to second for a double play. USM shortstop Ozzie Pratt then launched a blast over the centerfield wall to stake the visitors to a 2-0 lead. In the bottom half the Tide let a scoring chance get away. With one out Will Hodo smoked a ball to centerfield that just missed leaving the park and the big first baseman cruised into third base with his team leading third triple of the year. Garrett Staton struck out and Bryce Fowler walked. Fowler stole second base and freshman Peyton Steele had two men in scoring position, but a strikeout ended the threat.
Finateri allowed a one out single and walked the next man in the third inning. Austin Morris was brought in to relieve. Morris induced a pop up for the second out and an infield single to score a run. The inning should have been over when the next batter lifted a little pop up between third base and shortstop that landed on grass for a hit to score another run. The Tide had shifted shortstop Justin LeBron to the right side of the infield, leaving Torres alone on the left side. The lumbering Torres could not run down the ball and the Eagles fourth run scored. A fly out ended the half inning with Bama down 4-0.
The Tide had a quite bottom of the third with only a LeBron single. Morris tossed a scoreless fourth inning with the help of a double play. In the bottom of the fourth Bama finally broke through. After two quick outs Hodo walked on four straight pitches. Staton then hit his third long ball of the season to cut the lead to 4-2.
Morris retired the first two batters in the fifth before walking and hitting the next two men up. Left-hander Matthew Heiberger was called in to face Paetow. Heiberger needed only one pitch to end the inning on a ground ball. Bama got a single from Steele in the bottom of the fifth, but could not bring him around. Heiberger struck out the side in the top of the sixth to set up a big bottom half for the Tide.
Kade Snell led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk and Torres was hit by a pitch. At that point Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander called Kros Sively out of the bullpen to replace Josh Och. Sively walked Hodo to load the bases, then struck out Staton for the first out. Fowler was hit by a pitch to drive in a run. Steele struck out for the second out. Catcher Brady Neal then went the opposite way, dropping a double down the third base line to clear the bases and give the Tide an 6-4 lead. Centerfielder Richie Bonomolo, Jr then turned on a pitch and blasted his third home run of the year to push the lead to 8-4. LeBron followed with a double down the line, but was stranded when Snell grounded out to end the inning. Bama scored six runs on three hits, two walks, and two hit batters.
Coulson Buchanan took over for the Tide in the top of the seventh. After allowing a lead off single, Buchanan got a fly out and a strikeout before being replaced by freshman left-hander Connor Lehman. Lehman got Matthew Russo to fly out to left field to hold the lead at 8-6 for the home team.
Alabama went down in the seventh with only another walk to Hodo. In the top of the eighth Lehman ran into trouble. An infield single opened the inning, followed by a strikeout. Drew Barrett then doubled to put runners on second and third. Pratt lined a single to score one run and chase Lehman from the mound. The reliever was Bama closer Carson Ozmer. Tucker Stockman greeted Ozmer with a single to score the Eagles sixth run of the game. A ground ball to third ended the threat with two men left on base.
The Tide was looking for insurance in the bottom of the eighth, and the found it. Steele, in his first career start, launched his first career home run, just inside the foul ball in left field. Singles by Bonomolo, LeBron, and Snell plated the 10th run of the game for Alabama. Bama stranded the bases loaded in the inning. Ozmer was back out in the ninth, and nailed down his 10th save of the season, working around a two out double. A line shot right at Hodo at first base was snatched to end the game with the Tide on top 10-6.
After a slow start, Alabama finished 11-33 at the plate, drew seven walks, had two hit batters, two doubles, a triple and three home runs, while leaving eight men on base. LeBron hit 3-5 with a double, Bonomolo finished 2-4 with a walk, a home run, two runs, and two runs driven in. Steele was 2-4 with his first home run, a run scored, and one run driven in. Hodo was 1-1 with a triple, two runs, and four walks. Neal drove in three runs on his double in his 1-4 night. Staton drove in two with his home run. Heiberger collected the win and his 3-1 on the season, while Ozmer earned his 10th save of the season and is gunning for the Alabama single season record of 14 saves set by Ben Short in 1991.
The Golden Eagles hit 12-37 in the game with two walks, two hit batters, eight strikeouts, two doubles, one home run and left eight men on base. Pratt had a big night with three hits in four at bats with three runs driven in. Ben Higdon and Paetow had two hits each. Sivley took the loss and fell to 2-1 on the season.
The Tide came out of the gate slowly but turned it on late to keep their record unblemished in midweek games. Snell was moved from left field to DH for the second straight game as he continues to recover from a injury to his throwing hand that he suffered 10 days ago. Steele had only four at bats all season coming into the game and played admirably in left field as well as contributing two hits with his first home run. Bama relief pitchers combined to throw 6.2 innings, allowing nine hits with no walks, seven strikeouts, and two runs. This is a tough Southern Miss team that the Tide beat. The win was Alabamas 11th win against currently ranked, or ranked when the game was played, teams. The Tide has not played clean baseball the last few games, and they have a few things to clean up. The base running has been sloppy and at times there have been defensive lapses. The offense has been up and down lately, but can be explosive when it is on.
Mississippi State team comes to Tuscaloosa this weekend for a three game series. The Bulldogs are 20-13 overall and 3-9 in the SEC, but have won three games in a row. The Dogs won an SEC series for the first time this year last weekend by beating South Carolina on Saturday and Sunday after losing on Friday. The series will run from Friday to Sunday and game times are 6 p.m. CT on Friday, 2 p.m. CT on Saturday, and 1 p.m. CT on Sunday. All will be available on SEC Network Plus.
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