Two freshmen bats in the lineup, designated hitter Eric Hines and outfielder Chase Kroberger, delivered Tuesday night in Alabama’s 16-2 win over Samford.
Hines went three for three with a home run and three RBIs, while Kroberger went one for two with a home run and two RBIs. Hines is a Tuscaloosa native who has only played nine games and had 17 at-bats coming into this game. He hit his first home run at home for Alabama Tuesday.
“It felt amazing, man. I couldn’t wait for it to happen, you know, showing out for my city. I know they’re always going to come here to support the Tide, so I had to get us going a little bit more. It felt amazing to see myself do what I’ve always wanted to do since I was a kid,” Hines said.
With Hines and Kroberger’s recent success, they add more depth to an already very hot Alabama squad.
After the game, Vaughn mentioned that outfielder Sam Christensen should be back within the next week or two, adding even more depth to a team that just put 16 runs against Samford.
Alabama is one of the hottest teams in baseball right now, being ranked No. 8 in the country this week. The ranking comes on the heels of a sweep of Auburn, a win at Jacksonville State and a series win at Oklahoma.
The Crimson Tide’s Tuesday matchup against Samford was crucial for the team to maintain momentum heading into SEC play, especially following recent success.
Even with all those wins under the team’s belt recently, head coach Rob Vaughn was impressed with his team’s performance against Samford on Tuesday night. He added that he thought his offense “was electric.”
The offense was hitting on all cylinders, scoring four runs in the first inning to get things going. By the end of the night, Alabama had tallied 16 runs on 13 hits.
Alabama has a big SEC series against Arkansas this weekend in Tuscaloosa, where the team will hope both the talented freshmen and the whole offense continue to dominate.
