In Alabama’s first home Southeastern Conference action of the season, the No. 17 Mississippi Rebels were able to take advantage of yet another bullpen breakdown and defeat the Crimson Tide 11-7.
After Alabama’s starter Charley Sullivan exited after six innings, Ian Gardeck and Jake Hubbard combined to give up six hits and seven earned runs while retiring only batter in the top of the seventh inning.
The bullpen has been the problem for the Crimson Tide all season long. Coming into this weekend’s series, the bullpen had accounted for 47.3 percent of the innings pitched while allowing 59 percent of the runs and 66.6 percent of the walks.
The bullpen’s ERA, 5.34, and opponent’s batting average, .304, is also higher than the team total, which stood at a 4.73 ERA and .288 opponent’s batting average.
“Sullivan was not as sharp as he’s been, but he gave us another quality start and gave us an opportunity [to win],” head coach Mitch Gaspard said. “We imploded there in the seventh. They swung the bats well.
“Their job is to come in and keep the game right there. That’s been a constant theme for us; when we get something good going, we go right back out there and give it right back to them.”
It is tough to decipher if the issue in the pivotal seventh inning was a continuance of Alabama’s bullpen issues or meeting a great Ole Miss lineup. Ole Miss (16-6, 2-2 SEC) came into the game with a team batting average of .308, good for no. 4 in the SEC and with 17 homeruns, ranking third in the SEC.
“They got hits,” Gaspard said. “We walked a guy and gave up a double and before you know it, they’ve got five or six hits. Give credit to Ole Miss for swinging the bat well, but we probably missed on a few pitches with location.”
Reliever Trey Pilkington said, “[Ole Miss] came out and gave their best at-bats against our pitching and made some good hits and some timely hits. That stuff happens every now and then.”
What makes the loss hurt worse is that Alabama got some offensive production, which the Tide has struggled to get all season long. In the bottom of the first,Alabamajumped out to a 2-0 lead after a Jared Reaves double down the left field line that scored Taylor Dugas. Reaves would score later in the inning to take the 2-0 lead over the Rebels.
Alabama put together another two-run inning in the bottom of the sixth behind more hitting, this time from Ben Moore and Brett Booth.
Alabama’s offense also showed some balance, scoring both in spurts and with consistency, scoring in both the seventh and eighth inning to add the final three runs to the tally. The production in the seventh and eighth innings was again spearheaded by Reaves, getting a hit in both frames.
“I thought we put together some good at-bats today,” centerfielder Taylor Dugas said. “Thirteen hits and seven runs. We need to score more, but we took some steps. I thought our guys did a good job of battling tonight.”
Gaspard said the offensive production doesn’t make losing any better.
“Every game is tough to lose,” Gaspard said. “It doesn’t matter if you hit or don’t hit.”
Gaspard said he is not focused on the hitting or pitching effort put together by the Tide (8-14, 0-4 SEC) tonight, but more on the smaller aspects of baseball.
“We don’t do enough things well enough to win games,” Gaspard said. “Defensively, some errors don’t show up, but still our range needs to improve. There are some plays in the game you have to make. You have to turn double plays; you have to do certain things to keep the momentum going and get momentum going for yourself.”
