After dropping the series opener to the Georgia on Thursday, Alabama baseball bounced back with a 4-0 win on Friday to tie the series.
“I thought tonight it was really one of our best games all year,” head coach Mitch Gaspard said. “Jon Keller was outstanding. He’s pitched really well, for the most part, all year and tonight he got a little run support, he was able to stretch an extra inning and he got support in the back of the game from Jake Hubbard. I thought it was a clean game and that we played really well all night long.”
The Tide had a shaky start with a mix-up in the batting order that gave the team an automatic out. Prior to the game, Josh Rosecrans, usually fifth on the line up, was switched with Brett Booth who usually bats sixth.
Gaspard said he purposefully switched the two players because Booth had been batting so well for the Tide in recent games. The mix-up, he said, was just a mistake.
A mistake it was – and though it could have cost Alabama the win, the team was unshaken.
In fact, the Tide gained control of the game in the next inning with a triple by Taylor Dugas that allowed Hunter Gregory to score the first run of the game. Dugas then scored run number 232 of his career off a pop fly to centerfield by Jared Reaves.
A double to right centerfield by Gregory allowed Rosecrans and James Tullidge to score two additional runs for the Tide in the fourth bringing the score to 4-0.
Alabama starting pitcher Jon Keller took the Tide through seven innings allowing five hits and no runs. Keller tied his career high for longest outing – he pitched seven innings only one other time against Mississippi State. Also tied was his career high of six strike outs – Auburn and Ole Miss each had six batters struck out by Keller.
“Jon was outstanding,” Gaspard said. “Right now, he doesn’t look like a freshman on the mound.”
Reliever Jake Hubbard came into the game in the eighth inning. Hubbard finished the game for the Tide striking out two Georgia batters before Gregory grabbed the third out from a pop fly to left field.
Keller earned the win for the Tide bringing his record to 2-5 on the season. The win brings Alabama to 20-34 on the season and 8-21 in SEC play. Georgia fell to 31-23 for the season and 14-14 in SEC play.
The Tide and the Bulldogs will face off once more on Saturday, with first pitch set for 1:05 p.m. from Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The completion of its final Southeastern Conference series of the year will round out the season for the Crimson Tide.
