On a cold night of baseball, Alabama supplemented its win total with a victory over Alcorn State Tuesday night when it scored a season-high 17 runs. Alabama recorded 12 hits and another season-high of three home runs in an offensive explosion to win 17-3.
“I thought the offense was tremendous tonight,” head coach Mitch Gaspard said. “It was good to see the ball leave the yard a little bit. Obviously, two 3-run homers in the first inning, but we were on the barrel all night; it’s just what we wanted.”
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Alcorn State took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but that didn’t last long after senior Austen Smith blasted a 3-run homer over the left field fence in the bottom of the inning. Smith has hit home runs in consecutive at-bats, tying up the Tide’s game against Kentucky on Saturday in the ninth. The last time an Alabama player hit a home run in consecutive at-bats was May 12, 2010 when Jake Smith hit two against Samford.
“He’s hot, and he’s really putting together a lot of quality at-bats and really finding the barrel,” Gaspard said. “That’s what you want – a senior guy in your lineup that’s giving you a heck of a year right now.”
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Smith was just a triple away from the cycle. He finished 4-4 with a home run, a double and two singles. He wasn’t the only source of offense, though. Seven different players recorded at least one RBI. Sophomore Mikey White extended his hitting streak to 10 games. The last time Alabama scored at least 17 runs was Feb. 27, 2010 in a game against the University of Illinois at Chicago. Alabama won that game 25-1.
“Any time you put seventeen up it’s going to be a good night,” Smith said. “I mean our whole team just came out there and battled the whole game.”
Alabama’s pitching staff gave up three runs on six hits. Alabama used five pitchers. Freshmen Nick Eicholtz, Goeffrey Bramblett and Colton Freeman joined juniors Taylor Guilbeau and Cary Baxter to combine for 13 strikeouts. Freshmen in relief this year have a 0.32 ERA over 29.2 innings and a 0.76 ERA over 47.1 innings overall.
“It was good to see some guys come out of the bullpen that hadn’t had opportunities. I thought Colton Freeman and Cary Baxter did a good job in the back end, and Bramblett was very sharp as well,” Gaspard said. “I thought the pitching did a nice job tonight.”
Alabama improved to 13-6 after the win. The Alcorn State Braves fall to 1-21 for the season. The Braves’ losing streak has increased to 11 games. The Crimson Tide will play them again Wednesday at 5:05 p.m. to finish the two-game series.
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