What looked to be a run-rule win for the Ohio State Buckeyes turned into 12 unanswered runs from Alabama Baseball, which is the largest comeback in program history to top the Buckeyes 12-10 on a walk-off home run by Senior Will Hodo to go 3-0 on the weekend and win the second annual Jax College Baseball Classic.
“We got down early, and we kept fighting,” Hodo said.
Offensively, it was not an ideal start for the Tide, who stranded six runners in total in the first three innings. Ritchie Bonomolo Jr. Rolled a ball in the left-center field gap, and center fielder Reggie Bussey made a Superman dive on the ball to prevent two runs from being scored in the third.
Bobby Alcock took the mound for the second time this season and started the game on a roll, retiring the first eight batters faced by Bussey after the web gem, who got a two-out single. Then it spiraled to Lee Ellis, who hit a three-run shot on a hanging breaking ball to give the Buckeyes the early lead. Alcock’s day was over in 3.0 innings, 3K, 3R on 2H.
Things seemed to spiral in the fourth inning for the Tide on the mound, which needed three pitchers to get out of the inning when Austin Morris loaded the bases up with just one out of the inning. Beau Bryans entered the game to try and dig out of the inning, worked it to a 1-2 count with two outs, and gave up a two-RBI single on a ball that stayed in the infield. Aiden Moza entered the game and gave up a three-run homer to Tyler Pettorini to right-center field, with all seven in the inning coming with two outs.
Alabama began to chip away when Justin Lebron hit a bomb to the construction part of the ballpark in right-center field on his first of two three-run bombs. The web gems continued for the Buckeyes in the home half of the inning when the Tide had the bases loaded, and Brennen Norton came up and hit a high fly ball to left field that left fielder Matthew Graveline timed perfectly to rob the Tide of a grand-slam.
The Tide kept chipping away after the pitching staff continued to put up zeros when Lebron went yard yet again on his second three-run home run to the same spot to cut the deficit to three runs in the seventh. Captain Kade Snell roped a double down the first base line in the eighth to cut the lead to one.
Hodo, in his second year as a full-time starter as a senior, went to the plate in the ninth with two runners on and worked the count to 2-2, turned on a pitch, and sent a no-doubter three-run home run to walk it off to keep the Tide perfect on the season.
The work of Moza and Tate Robertson, which allowed the Tide to come back in the game and keep the Buckeyes at bay, was a big part of the game. Both pitchers combined to go 5.1 innings for 10 strikeouts on one run, with Robertson winning.
Next: The Alabama team will gear up and head back home to host Jacksonville State in the midweek contest at the Joe. The first pitch is set for Tuesday at 4 p.m. central on the SEC Network +.
