The Alabama baseball team swept its weekend series against the Virginia Military Institute Keydets with a 7-4 win on Sunday afternoon. The win improves the Tide to 3-0 on the season – its best start to a season since starting 4-0 during the 2011 campaign.
“It was a good weekend, particularly when you’re coming in with that many freshmen on the field. We felt like what we had seen through the first five months, they were going to play well,” head coach Mitch Gaspard said.
The Tide began the series on Friday night with an 8-3 comeback win over the Keydets led by freshman shortstop Mikey White, who went 4-for-5 at the plate in his collegiate debut. In the second game of the series on Saturday, the Tide offense – led predominately by White and fellow freshman second baseman Kyle Overstreet – came alive with 13 hits in a 10-5 victory.
“The freshmen stood out this weekend. They came out; they played hard; they [did] what the older guys asked them to do, which is play hard and just compete,” senior third baseman Kenny Roberts said. “I feel like as the season goes along, they’ll get even better.”
Redshirt junior Tucker Hawley (1-0), who missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery—essentially, a tendon replacement in the elbow—got credited for the win in relief for senior right-hander Charley Sullivan (0-0) in his season debut. Keydets freshman left-hander Connor Bach (0-1) was credited for the loss for VMI.
(See also “Injury to junior college catcher affects roster”)
Hawley (2.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER) was personally relieved to finally be back on the baseball field.
“Sitting out all of last year and just having to watch and try to help out the term, but it’s always good to be back out on the field,” Hawley said. “It felt great. [I was] a little amped up when I first came in, [but] I got calmed down once I got going.”
Alabama got on the board first in the second inning off an RBI double from Roberts and an RBI single from senior catcher Brett Booth in the following at-bat to put the Tide up 2-0 early.
The Tide added to its lead in the fourth, going up 3-0 off an RBI sacrifice fly from sophomore first baseman Cary Baxter that brought home Roberts from second.
Baxter led the team offensively in the series with a .625 batting average, two doubles, four RBIs, three walks and one hit by pitch on 12 plate appearances.
“I think we got some young guys, who know how to work,” Baxter said. “I think this year we’ve done a good job in practice since the fall. Everybody’s come out to work every day. There’s nobody that really feels like they’re entitled. Everybody comes out and takes it one game at a time.”
After the Keydets tied the game with a three-run fifth inning, the Tide quickly responded. In the bottom of the sixth inning, it scored four runs off of four separate RBI singles up the middle to reclaim the lead at 7-3.
The big inning was enough to put away the Keydets for good, who were only able to score one more run in the game.
The Tide returns to action Tuesday, Feb. 19, at home against Southern Mississippi. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.
Leading in today’s Crimson White:
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Tennis team beats Washington; keeps improving, getting hotter
