Alabama got back in the win column after getting swept this past weekend with a 6-3 win over the Belmont Bruins.
“It may not have been the sexiest win, but we won as a group,” Coach Rob Vaughn said.
Transfer Kade Snell toed the mound for his first start of the season, also filling in lineup as the DH. Snell had early base traffic in the middle innings, stranding the bases loaded after loading them with nobody out and stranding two the next inning after a triple by Belmont.
Evan Sleight opened the home half of the fourth with a triple to left field, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Mason Swinney that was hit to the warning track in left to give the Tide the lead.
The floodgates opened in the fifth and sixth innings when Justin Lebron hit a sacrifice fly to send home Will Portera from third. This was followed by a moonshot from TJ McCants, who tied the team lead with 11 homers on the season. In the sixth, the Tide added another 2 runs with back-to-back singles from Snell and Will Hodo, both recording RBIs, giving Alabama the 5-run lead.
Belmont got on the board in the seventh on a 2-run blast by Sam Slaughter, followed by a throwing error on a pick-off by Coulson Buchanan, scoring another run. In the home, half another at-bat and another RBI for Snell on a sacrifice fly, who has flourished since getting the nod at DH this past Sunday.
Snell, pitching through base traffic all evening, pitched three scoreless, tallying four punchouts. The Tide was able to use six guys out of the pen after Snell with Austin Morris, Sam Mitchell, the Huntsville native, who got the win, Zane Probst, Coulson Buchanan, Aidan Moza and Alton Davis II, tallying six innings of work as a group with six strikeouts, allowing three runs. Davis II got the save, which was save number four on the season.
Up next for Alabama is the third SEC series of the season, welcoming the South Carolina Gamecocks to the Joe with game one on Thursday at 7 p.m. central on the SEC Network.
