“It’s kind of been a theme for us all year, the way [we] respond to adversity,” Bramblett said. “I feel like this team fights a lot, and we fight together. I think we showed that today.”
The seventh inning looked like trouble for Bramblett after several good innings of work. He gave up two hits and hit a batter to load the bases. Then the third balk of the game was called – the first on Alabama – giving Georgia its second run of the game. But Bramblett responded with three strikeouts in a row to get out of the inning with minimal damage.
“I thought Bramblett did a super job in a clutch situation for us,” coach Mitch Gaspard said. “We really had to have this game. We really needed to win this series, and he gave us a real good start.”
On the offensive side, the game started out with something rarely seen in baseball.
In the first inning, Alabama junior Mikey White was up with two outs and two strikes. Georgia pitcher Jared Walsh threw what seemed to be an inning-ending strike, but it actually bounced up to the plate. As players were walked toward their dugouts, Gaspard contested the call. The call was overturned, and on the next pitch, White hit into centerfield. UGA center fielder Stephen Wrenn lunged forward only to see the ball bounce past him, and White took advantage of the misplay. He circled the bases for Alabama’s first inside-the-park home run since David Kindred on April 14, 2010.
“I didn’t know if he was going to hold me up, but [Alabama third base coach Andy Phillips] was waving his arm pretty hard over there at third, and I saw it get past him so I know I had a shot,” White said. “A play like that gets everyone going. It gets everyone pumped, because it doesn’t happen a lot.”
In the third inning, Alabama’s offense exploded. Walsh got into trouble with the bases loaded and gave up a run that ended his day. Georgia right-hander Taylor Hicks came into a rough situation with the bases loaded, and before he even made a pitch, he balked, moving another Alabama run across the plate. J.C. Wilhite followed with a RBI-single, and Will Haynie finished off the four-run inning with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.
“It was good to win this, it was good to win this series, but we have work to do this week,” Gaspard said. “We have got to be a better baseball team when we go to Missouri.”
