TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Fresh coming off the sweep in Aggieland, the No. 12 Alabama Baseball team was back at the Joe tonight and almost got caught looking ahead to this weekend’s matchup against No. 1 Tennessee as it barely held on with a 6-5 win in 10 innings against South Alabama to move to 21-1 on the season which is the best start in program history.
“It wasn’t the prettiest of games of all time, but I thought we were gritty and tough, and that is what we hang our hats on,” said head coach Rob Vaughn.
JT Blackwood got the start for the Tide and was greeted with back-to-back hits, but got out of it despite allowing hard contact and after the inning was taken out of the game due to a sickness. A barrage of arms picked up Blackwood with Aeden Finateri and Tate Robertson, who allowed two runs a piece.
“He came off the mound and looked white as a ghost,” said Vaughn on Blackwood.
Offensively, the Tide got things going in the second inning, of course, with Catcher Will Plattner, who is now the new starter after platooning for much of the season, hitting a loud double off the wall right inside the chalk in left-center field to get the Tide on the board.
The Jags gave the Tide pitching staff troubles all night finding holes or hitting soft bloops wherever guys weren’t. That is where South Alabama hit it, too. A single up the middle by Greg Pettay scored two, and another single up the middle by Brennan Holt scored two, and the Tide almost got out at the plate after Plattner got the relay throw from Justin Lebron and just dropped the ball and came up hurt, but was able to stay in the game and continue.
Coulson Buchanan changed the momentum of the game and settled the game down after the Tide went down with 2.0 innings of shutout baseball with three strikeouts.
All season, the Tide have dealt with deficits and comebacks, and tonight was no different. Will Hodo, who has come up big almost every time with runners on where the lights are the brightest, hit a three-run bomb to give the Tide the lead in the bottom of the fifth, number seven on the season for the Senior.
The Jags were down to the last at-bats and tied it up on a line drive home run by John Smith off of closer Carson Ozmer to send the game to extras. Austin Morris came in for the 10th and had a shutdown inning, allowing Kade Snell to head to the dish and see a get-me-over fastball in a 3-0 count and blast it to left field to call the game for the Tide’s second walk-off home run of the season and the first game of extras.
“I was looking for a green light, and he gave me one,” said Snell on the mindset of the walk-off at bat.
The Tide will welcome the Tennessee Volunteers, defending national champions, who are coming off a midweek defeat to East Tennessee State, for a Thursday to Saturday series at the Joe. The first pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
