On Wednesday night, the Alabama baseball team defeated the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils 5-1 in Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa. With the win, the Crimson Tide improves to 27-15 on the season and extends its winning streak to five games.
“Mid-week games, you just gotta win them,” said head coach Mitch Gaspard. “That’s what we were able to do tonight. We’ve got to get back on track. We’ll have a good practice tomorrow night and try to get the offense in good flow for this weekend.”
However, Gaspard said the team is still struggling on offense.
“Offensively, it was disappointing tonight that we weren’t more productive,” he said. “Hats off to their guy. He did a great job throwing a breaking ball for a strike.”
Mississippi Valley State got on the board first at the top of the first inning when a single from the third batter ran in the team’s first batter of the game.
In the bottom of the second, Clay Jones started the batting order off with a homerun to tie the game at 1-1. That was his third home run in two days and his 12th of the year. His home run also extended Alabama’s streak in home runs to six in the last seven games.
“I got some pitches to hit this weekend that I didn’t miss, and [I’m] just glad they got out of the yard to help the team,” Jones said.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Alabama scored again, taking the lead 2-1 with the help of two errors and a wild pitch. Rutledge got on base with an error at third. With Wilson’s at-bat next, there was an error at shortstop, which allowed Rutledge to advance to third. Then he scored on a wild pitch.
In the top of the seventh, pitcher Tyler White got into early trouble with a runner on first and third with no outs. However, the third batter up hit a bunt to White, who ran down the runner at third and tagged him out to save Alabama’s lead.
But the next batter up hit a single, loading the bases with only one out. After that, Alabama changed pitchers for the seventh time, bringing in Jake Smith to finish the inning. He pitched to two batters, striking out both of them, ending the inning with three runners left on base.
“I felt good,” Smith said. “I had control of both pitches. I mainly used fastballs, which I can locate pretty good on a day-to-day basis…I just knew if I did what I was supposed to do that I’d be fine, hit my spots and everything would take care of itself.”
Gaspard said that was the best he has seen Smith pitch this year.
“I think with a couple of guys scuffling in the bullpen, Jake’s going to become more of a factor down the stretch, and the positive with that is that he’s got a really fresh arm right now,” Gaspard said.
In the bottom of the seventh, Alabama extended its lead to 5-1 with three hits off two new pitchers for MVS. MVS’s first pitcher, Britt Goodman left the game after six innings with nine strikeouts.
Throughout the game, the Tide featured eight pitchers, with Jason Townsend getting the credit for the win. He pitched the fifth inning, getting one strikeout on his way to a three up, three down inning.
The conclusion of this game wrapped up Alabama’s final non-conference home game. Next up, the Tide travels to Columbia, S.C., to take on the University of South Carolina in a three-game series. USC currently leads the Southeastern Conference. The first game starts at 6 p.m. Friday night, followed by a game at noon on Saturday and a 12:30 p.m. game on Sunday.
