The No. 8 Alabama Crimson Tide beat Samford 11-9 on Tuesday night after thwarting off a late-game comeback attempt by the Bulldogs.
“It’s getting good starts, playing clean defense and it’s executing offense,” head coach Rob Vaughn said.
Junior JT Blackwood opened the game up for Alabama and closed the first inning quickly, going 1-2-3.
In the bottom of the first, Bryce Fowler hit an RBI with bases loaded and put the Crimson Tide up 1-0.
After another 1-2-3 from Blackwood in the bottom of the second, John Malone emerged on the mound for Samford and quickly gave up a 3-run home run to Richie Bonomolo Jr. to make it a 3-0 game. Back-to-back doubles by Jason Torres and Fowler put Alabama up 5-0.
Junior Zack Kitrell entered the game in the third for Alabama, but after Samford loaded the bases, Coulson Buchanan took over. He walked one before allowing a sacrifice fly, cutting Alabama’s lead down to 3 before attaining the third out.
In the bottom of the third, two walks allowed Brady Neal to hit a double deep into center field, scoring a run and putting Alabama up 6-2.
Samford then subbed in Austin Tommasini, who allowed a double by Bonomolo to score 2 and a single by Justin Lebron to score 1 before a wild pitch a few plays later allowed Lebron to reach home and make it 10-2.
In the seventh inning, with Jack Ketchum on the mound for Alabama, a 3-run homer by Gatlin Pitts narrowed Samford’s deficit to 10-5 with zero outs.
Alabama then brought Connor Ball to the mound to get out of the seventh. With one on first, he allowed Jeffrey Ince to double, putting one on second and third still with zero outs. Jackson Harris hit a double to center field and scored 2 RBIs, bringing the score to 10-7 and forcing Alabama to bring in another new pitcher.
Tyler Fay came in for damage control. He allowed one single that placed a runner on third, and with Jake Souders up to bat, another single allowed the runner on third to score to bring the game within 2.
A wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third, followed by a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Samford’s Cade Carr to make it a 10-9 game.
On a bunt by Brayden Broome, Souders attempted to reach home but was tagged out after a quick throw by Fay to catcher Will Plattner. Alabama got out of the inning after a ground out to second.
“Seventh was just a weird, weird, weird thing,” Vaughn said. “It was six or seven hits in a row … we’ve all been around baseball enough, I don’t care if it’s bloopers or lasers, it is hard to get six or seven hits in a row.”
Alabama went scoreless again in the seventh but also managed to keep the Bulldogs scoreless in the eighth to preserve the lead. Plattner got things going in the bottom of the eighth for the Crimson Tide offense with a double to deep left field, followed by a ground out for him to advance on.
A single by redshirt senior Garrett Staton allowed Plattner to reach home and give Alabama its first run since the third inning, but that’s all the Crimson Tide managed in the eighth.
Carson Ozmer came in to close the game in the ninth, and that’s exactly what he did. A quick 1-2-3, all strikeouts, gave Alabama the 11-9 win.
“Every game is just a test for us,” Vaughn said. “Before the game, the same guys that said our team wasn’t worth anything ranked us eight this week. We have the option to believe we figured it out, or the option to just be us and block out everything on the outside.”
