The pitch came from Kennesaw State reliever Justin McCalvin, low and inside to Alabama sophomore Kyle Overstreet. Overstreet waited and watched, even jumping out of the way of what he thought was a ball, looking for a pitch to hit, with the tying runs on base, two outs and Alabama trailing the Owls 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth.
Instead, home plate umpire Jim Garmin called a third strike, ending a once-promising Alabama baseball season in the regional championship game.
“Highly disappointed with the last inning, the way the game ended,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said in the post-game press conference. “I thought we had an opportunity there with guys on first and second, and Overstreet’s working a really good at-bat. That’s a ball. That’s a flat-out ball. The ball was not called off the plate the entire day. Very disappointed with that last call that we didn’t get another pitch to fight with.”
The Crimson Tide had a long journey to make it to the second game of the regional championship. Alabama dropped its first game to Kennesaw State on Friday, falling into the losers bracket.
From that point, the Crimson Tide rattled off three straight wins, beating every team in the regional and resembling the eighth-ranked team it had been midway through the season. Saturday, the Crimson Tide outlasted Florida State 6-5 in the second game of the regional, weathering a 5-run rally by the Seminoles in the ninth inning of that game.
After that, Alabama rode quality pitching, including two complete games in one day from pitchers Geoffrey Bramblett and Taylor Guilbeau against Georgia Southern and Kennesaw State, respectively, staving off elimination until the team was one win away from the Super Regional.
“We have a different energy right now, and it started with the win over FSU yesterday,” Gaspard said before that final game. “It relaxed our guys, and we’re really in a good place right now. I’m excited about the game tomorrow.”
That victory was not to be for the Crimson Tide, as Alabama was doomed by one of their habitual problems: runners left on base. Gaspard stressed the importance of timely hitting going into the regional, but the Crimson Tide left 13 men on base against the Owls.
“They pitched well,” Gaspard said. “I think you’ve got to tip your hat to Kennesaw. I thought that they gave us a lot of different combinations, and they’ve got a really good bullpen. They threw a lot of strikes, particularly after the first couple of innings. This game’s built on timely hits. When you get them, you typically win, and when you don’t, it’s tough.”
The regional loss marked the end of a disappointing half-season for the Crimson Tide, which slid from the 8th-ranked team in the nation to the 2nd seed in the Tallahassee regional.
“This team, quite honestly, has been very frustrating, because I know there’s a lot of talent in this group,” Gaspard said. “And it’s been a hard-working group. The frustration is not on that side for players as well. When we went into our funk there for about a month, it was never about effort. It was about the level of play at times for us. I really thought here in the last two days we became the team I thought we would. I was really proud of the group yesterday. These guys deserve a lot of credit.”
See also: “Baseball team to compete in regional“
