HOOVER, Ala. – Alabama was eliminated from the SEC Tournament after losing to South Carolina 10-5 on Tuesday and will now wait to hear their name called on Monday for the NCAA Tournament.
“It was one of those days; we had a great start, and two-out RBIs win games, and six out of their 10 runs came with two outs, and now, we sit and wait and hope we are playing baseball next week,” said head coach Rob Vaughn.
William Hamiter started the game by making a Superman dive to rob Cole Messina of an RBI double in the gap and the bottom half with an RBI single up the middle. The Tide added to its lead in the second, scoring on a hit by pitch and sacrifice fly by Gage Miller to get Dylan Eskew, the Gamecock starter, out of the ballgame.
Greg Farone got the start for Alabama, coming off pitching 106 pitches on Thursday, and fatigue bit in the third with three home runs from Gavin Casas, Ethan Petry on solo shots, and the big fly grand slam by Dalton Reeves off Aidan Moza.
Hamiter continued to come up with a clutch with a double off the wall in the right-center, cutting the deficit to one run. Messina had an answer every time at the dish, hitting a solo shot to center in the fifth and following that up with a double in the right-center gap, scoring two.
Chris Veach gave the Tide problems on the mound for the Gamecocks with a slow changeup in the low 70s with a low 90s fastball, which Alabama could not time up, only getting three hits in 5.2 innings.
With a strong RPI in the top 25 and strength of schedule in the top 10, with series wins over top-ranked Tennessee and Arkansas, Alabama has a solid case to get an at-large bid to Regionals to remain to play.
“We are just going to prepare like we are in every practice and show up and keep working,” said Hamiter on how the team will prepare for next week if selected.
Up next for Alabama is the waiting game, which will last six days until Memorial Day Monday afternoon at 11 a.m. central time on ESPN 2, when it will hear its name called to get a bid to Regionals.
