TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – On a perfect afternoon for baseball in front of a full right field filled with students at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, the Alabama Baseball team moved to a perfect 10-0 on the season-opening series with a 5-3 win over North Dakota State.
“Good start to the weekend. Obviously, it was a little bit of a sluggish start by our guys at first,” said coach Rob Vaughn.
Zane Adams took the ball for the Tide after last week’s performance in what was a tough start with the Bisons able to get traffic early in the first and was able to capitalize with an two-RBI single up the middle to score two runs to follow up with a sacrifice fly by Alex Urlaub to add on another run.
Adams was shut down after the early runs, but his outing was cut short after four innings with a pitch count of 88, but was able to tie his season-high in punchouts with six-K, but walked three batters.
The bats got rolling in the second on a barrage of dingers to left field with Brennen Norton getting the party started with a two-run shot to left field with Captain Kade Snell going back-to-back on his first of the season, showing off the opposite power with a solo shot to left field. Ritchie Bonomolo Jr. joined along with his first of the season to left field after being close multiple times this season with the Tide’s starting nine, at least with one home run in the season in 10 games.
“I’m not hitting bad by any means, but the extra base hits will come. I’m just glad I got a pitch I could do something with and get an RBI for my team,” said Snell.
Braylon Myers took charge after the bullpen gave up over six runs in the midweek on Tuesday. He put up three straight scoreless frames to get his first win and struck out three. Aidan Moza continues to bounce back after a tough season last year. Despite giving up one run, he was able not to walk any batters, which has been a struggle.
“Those three zeros by shack (Myers) kind of killed any momentum those guys had,” said Vaughn.
The Tide blew the game open after Cotton Eye Joe played after the seventh inning stretch, scoring two runs on two walks with the Tide now second in the country with 82 walks on the season. The big-time bomb by Jason Torres, who had been struggling lately and was on a six-game drought, hit a mammoth blast that went over the scoreboard in left for a two-run blast.
Carson Ozmer went out to close out the ninth after walking a couple of batters last Saturday, pitched a perfect ninth, striking out the side to seal the deal.
The bottom of the lineup continues to feast with Snell leading the charge going 4-5 with two-RBIs, and then Bonomolo Jr. went 2-4 in the nine hole with two-RBIs and continues to turn the lineup card over to the top.
The Tide look to win its third straight series on the season tomorrow with first pitch set at 2 p.m. central on the SEC Network +.
