TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 12 Alabama opened its highly anticipated weekend series against top-ranked and defending national champion Tennessee with a thrilling 6-5 victory Thursday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The Volunteers struck early, scoring three runs across the first two innings, but a five-run second by the Crimson Tide proved to be the difference.
“(Scoring early on) obviously makes life a little easier. I thought we had some really tough at bats the whole (second) inning. Good teams score early and often. In order to beat a team as good as we did tonight, you’re going to have to string some things together and we were able to do that tonight,” said Alabama Head Coach Rob Vaughn when asked about second inning success.
As mentioned earlier, Tennessee’s offense struck early. Alabama starter Zane Adams retired the first two batters of the game with ease before issuing a walk. Moments later, Vols first baseman Andrew Fischer crushed a towering two-run homer to right-center, giving Tennessee the early lead.
An inning later, an error by Jason Torres allowed the leadoff Volunteer to reach, and he came around to score after another miscue by Torres, extending Tennessee’s lead to 3-0. In the bottom half, Alabama’s most explosive inning of the season struck again. Will Hodo led off with a single, Brennen Norton was hit by a pitch, and an error loaded the bases with no outs. Tennessee ace Liam Doyle then issued back-to-back uncharacteristic walks, cutting the deficit to one. Moments later, Alabama star Justin Lebron cleared the bases with a laser into the left-center gap for a three-run double, giving the Tide a 5-3 lead.
Entering the game, Liam Doyle had allowed just six earned runs over 25 innings this season. Tonight, he gave up six runs, five earned, while setting new season highs in hits, runs, and walks allowed. Despite striking out nine, he suffered his first loss of the season.
“That guy is elite. He has tremendous stuff and one of the best fastballs in the country. I thought we just did a great job of knocking him off what he did well. The plan coming in was to get him off the heater and I thought we did a good job of that tonight,” said coach Rob Vaughn when asked about his gameplan for Doyle.
In the third inning, Alabama got back on the board after Kade Snell singled, then Plattner doubled moving him to third, then Richie Bonomolo Jr grounded out to score run number six.
After allowing three runs in the first two innings, Zane Adams settled in and delivered a strong outing for the Tide. He tossed four consecutive scoreless frames, battling through jams along the way. Anytime he let a pitch get away, Alabama’s defense had his back, including a spectacular home run robbery by Bryce Fowler in the sixth inning.
Zane Adams struggled a bit in the seventh before being pulled. Matthew Heiberger entered and allowed a pair of singles and a flyout that scored two runs for the Volunteers, cutting Alabama’s lead to just one. Adams’ final line: 6.1 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K.
Heiberger found himself in a small jam in the eighth, but Carson Ozmer came in and did what he’s done all season, put out the fire and earned the four-out save.
With this win, Alabama improved to 22-1 on the season and 4-0 in SEC play for the first time since the 2003 season. The Tide will look to take the series from the No. 1 Volunteers with a victory in Game 2 tomorrow at 6 p.m. CT.
