A highly anticipated matchup between No. 1 Tennessee and No. 12 Alabama featured both teams off to their best starts in program history.
On a cold, windy Thursday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, in what a lot of people expected to be a pitchers’ duel between two of the most dominant left-handed starting pitchers in college baseball — Zane Adams for Alabama and Liam Doyle for Tennessee — ended up being an offensive slugfest in the first couple innings. The game finished with a 6-5 Crimson Tide victory.
Alabama fell into a quick 3-0 deficit in the first two innings due to a 2-run home run by Volunteers first baseman Andrew Fisher in the first inning and a couple of errors by Alabama third baseman Jason Torres that allowed an unearned run to score in the second inning.
“We played a little sloppy early on both sides of the ball,” head coach Rob Vaughn said, “We kicked the ball around a little in the second and gifted them a run.”
There has been something about Alabama and hitting in the second inning this season, as the team has now scored 56 runs on the season in the second, over 20 more than they have scored in any other inning. That didn’t change on Thursday night.
The Crimson Tide quickly bounced back by scoring 5 more second-inning runs off Doyle, who has been one of the most dominant pitchers in college baseball this season with a 2.03 ERA and 62 strikeouts.
“I tell these kids all the time, you never know when a game is going to be decided,” Vaughn said, “It could be in the first or the ninth. Today, it happened to be in the second.”
The inning started with a rocket single to right field by first baseman Will Hodo. Second baseman Brennen Norton was hit by a pitch, and left fielder Kade Snell reached on an error by the Volunteers second baseman Manny Marin to load the bases with no outs for catcher Will Plattner.
Plattner and center fielder Richie Bonomolo Jr. worked bases-loaded walks to bring 2 runs home and make the score 3-2. A couple of batters later, shortstop Justin Lebron hit a bases-clearing double to bring his RBI total on the season up to 48, which leads college baseball, and make it a 5-3 Crimson Tide lead.
“I knew he was going to attack with the fastball,” Justin Lebron said on his double against Doyle, “I was looking for something more down in the zone, but I got a pitch up and didn’t miss it.”
Alabama tacked on another run in the 3rd inning thanks to an RBI groundout by Richie Bonomolo Jr. to make it a 6-3 ballgame.
Tennessee cut the lead to 6-5 in the top of the 7th inning via an RBI single from center fielder Hunter Ensley, followed by a sacrifice fly from Andrew Fisher.
A big 5-run second inning and solid pitching performances by Adams, Matthew Hiberger and Carson Ozmer were enough for the Crimson Tide to take down the Volunteers 6-5 in Game 1 of the series.
