Alabama baseball took on its in-state rival Auburn on Friday night in a 12-inning scrimmage, concluding its fall exhibition slate. The Tigers used a mammoth seventh inning to come away with the 13-8 win. 

The Crimson Tide held a 3-2 lead through six frames but it unraveled after the seventh inning stretch. Auburn got things started with a solo homer and then rallied with two outs to push across five more. The big blow came on a three-run shot by catcher Ike Irish, making it 8-3 Tigers.  

Infielder Colby Shelton got the rally caps going with a three-run double in the eighth, cutting the deficit to two. But Auburn put the game out of reach in the ninth inning with a deuce of two-run hits, widening the margin to 12-6.  

Much like last week’s double-header against Mississippi State University, Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon made a point of this game being an opportunity to get looks at a bunch of different players. 

“We were able to get a lot of guys in the game, and we learned a lot about our team, a lot about some individual players tonight,” Bohannon said. 

One of those players was sophomore pitcher Luke Holman. He drew the start for the Crimson Tide and he was near-flawless, hurling two no-hit scoreless innings with three punchouts. The sophomore was dominant in last week’s exhibition too, and has combined for four hitless innings with no runs, one walk and six strikeouts across both performances. Despite owning an ugly 5.68 earned run average last season, Holman was lights-out from the beginning of SEC play through the end of the regular season, accumulating a 1.54 ERA with 15 strikeouts in 11.2 innings.  

Highly-coveted freshman right-hander Riley Quick was also impressive for a second consecutive outing. He followed up last week’s two perfect innings with two scoreless frames on Friday, allowing one hit and one walk with three strikeouts. 

“It’s been a really good fall for us so far, and we’ve grown a lot over the last few weeks,” Bohannon said. We’re going to finish up next week with our Fall World Series. Hopefully we can continue to grow during this final week and carry that momentum into the spring as we prepare for the new season.”

Questions or comments? Email Austin Hannon (Sports Editor) at [email protected]