- TUSCALOOSA, Ala. –
Tuesday, the Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the South Alabama Jaguars by a score of 5-4, to win its second-consecutive game for the first time since the March 11th-13th sweep of the Binghamton Bearcats.
The Tide conquered a familiar in-state foe in South Alabama thanks to Jim Jarvis advancing on a wild pitch with two outs in the 9th.
The winning play by Jarvis can be viewed here, with a postgame rundown to right-field from the entire dugout soon after…
*All game footage via livestream is property of the SEC Network and Crimson Tide Productions*
Alabama will turn its attention to a pesky Texas A&M team over the weekend, with the Tide looking for its first SEC series win of the season after sweeping the Aggies in College Station last spring.
On Friday, junior right-handed pitcher Garrett McMillan takes the mound, looking to put on another masterclass. Saturday, it will be Jacob McNairy, the Tide’s midweek starter earlier this season. Finally, Grayson Hitt will take the bump on Sunday, looking to send Texas A&M out of town with a loss.
Heading into the weekend, the Tide sit at 15-11 overall and 2-4 in league play. With a repeat sweep of Texas A&M, Alabama can climb to over .500 in conference play, something fifth-year coach Brad Bohannon and this fanbase could only dream up just a few years ago.
To paraphrase Coach Bohannon’s words from Sunday, for all the flaws and inconsistencies Alabama baseball may have, it never goes down without a fight.
That was certainly the case again on Tuesday, with a clutch 8th inning throw from Jarvis to nail the go-ahead Jaguar run at the plate helping catapult the Tide to a walk-off win in the Bottom of the 9th.
It was Jarvis who shined in the field, at the plate and on the base path Tuesday. The clutch throw, paired with a leadoff 9th inning double and an advancement to home on a wild pitch, propelled the Tide to its first midweek win since March 2nd against Troy.
In addition, Bryce Eblin hit a monster three-run home-run to right-center field in the Bottom of the 4th to give the Tide a lead.
Tuesday, Bohannon mentioned vast amount of tight ballgames the Tide have played in over the past few weeks including midweek matchups, which he believes could come in handy down the stretch.
“Having these experiences is really going to pay off later. If we’re in tight games this weekend, our guys are going to be able to look back and know we’ve done it, and have a lot of experiences in those situations,” said Bohannon.
The head coach of the Crimson Tide was jubilant in the postgame press conference, following a roller-coaster weekend of emotions in Starkville. Bohannon would go on to give a brief injury update on relief pitcher Landon Green, in addition to outfielder William Hamiter and Brock Guffey.
Bohannon mentioned that Green has been feeling better of late, with tonight’s 1.0 IP in relief being his first appearance in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, Hamiter has been taking batting practice with the team and is looking at a potential return next weekend for the Ole Miss series. However, Bohannon noted they will have to ramp up the intensity with Hamiter to have him reach that ‘soft goal’ of an Oxford return.
Hamiter could be seen taking batting practice in Starkville on Sunday after wearing a boot for the last few weeks.
As far as SEC play goes, Bohannon is hoping that getting back his missing contributors will help give Alabama the boost it’s been looking for in all of these tight games.
The fifth-year head coach mentioned the strength of the conference as a whole right now and just how difficult it is to win, especially in the West.
“It seems like to this point, there’s a lot of parity (in the SEC) right now, and we have eight more weeks of this,” noted Bohannon.
Alabama dropped all three games in an early season road trip to future conference member Texas, but did give the Longhorns quite the battle in two of the three contests.
The Tide hung with the Gators of Florida in the opening weekend of SEC play in Tuscaloosa, taking the final game of the series, but battling back to at least threaten Florida in all three games.
Last weekend, Alabama came as close as it has all season to a big series win, being on the brink of victory in the first two games in Starkville before pulling away late Sunday to salvage the series by a final score of 6-2.
The weather for this weekend’s home series against Texas A&M looks to be near perfect, so make sure to head out to Sewell-Thomas Stadium to catch a scrappy Alabama baseball team in action against the up and coming Aggies.
As of 10:20 PM CT Tuesday, A&M leads Texas in the Bottom of the 9th by a score of 12-9.
With an anticipated win in Austin, the Aggies improve to 15-9 on the season and sit at 3-3 in conference play.
A&M now has three ranked wins to its name, so a series win and or sweep would be a nice resume boost for Alabama at The Joe this weekend.
Although this series may not look too intriguing on paper, it will go a long way momentum wise for the winner, which could help propel A&M or Alabama into Hoover and possibly even a regional.
Texas A&M faces a daunting SEC slate in its last four weeks of the regular season, so one could argue avoiding back-to-back conference series losses early could certainly make or break the Aggies’ season.
As for Alabama, the first two weekends resulted in series losses, so dropping a third-straight weekend series and a second weekend at home would be brutal.
It’s do or die time for both A&M and Alabama in Tuscaloosa…
Tommy Seidl, (Jarvis), and Bryce Eblin look to lead Alabama at the plate vs A&M, with the starting rotation from last weekend’s series in Starkville carrying over into this weekend’s lineup.
Southern Slams Baseball 