Alabama welcomed in the 2020 baseball season for the Harvard Crimson with its second consecutive benchmark game in the Ivy League member’s first game of the year.

After its 12-6 clobbering of Middle Tennessee State on Wednesday that featured a season-high 12 runs on 15 hits, the Crimson Tide bested that effort with 15 runs and 19 hits on Friday smashing Harvard, 15-3. The win marks the third-best start in school history.

Alabama (10-0) rolled through six scoreless innings with freshman Connor Prielipp on the mound. Prielipp (3-0) gave up a hit in the third inning to snap his streak of 34-straight batters faced without surrendering a hit. The lefty gave up one more after that throughout his outing while striking out a season-high nine batters and bringing his season total in strikeouts to 24. Of the 78 pitches Prielipp threw, 56 were for a strike.

“We’ve been gradually building up his pitch count and he did great today,” coach Brad Bohannon said. “His stuff hasn’t dropped off; his velocity, his command, deeper into games and hopefully that continues to be a trend.”

Just three of the 19 hits were for extra bases while eight Alabama players recorded multi-hit games. The Crimson Tide earned a season-high 14 walks and freshman Owen Diodati’s 0 for 2 day had a silver lining to it earning five walks to tie the school record for a single game. Alabama hitters were 10 for 26 (.385) with runners in scoring position and left 18 runners on base.

“We just try to be aggressive,” senior shortstop Kolbe Robinson said. “The coaches give us the right mentality to drive in runs and that’s baseball, you want to drive in runs. Just got up there and attack it.”

After no score through the first two innings, a monstrous third inning by Alabama posted seven runs. Junior Tyler Gentry extended his hitting streak to five games with an RBI single for the first Crimson Tide run. Gentry’s short day was productive going 2 for 3 with one RBI and two runs scored.

A pair of two-RBI singles by freshmen Drew Williamson and Peyton Wilson made it 5-0. Williamson went 2 for 2 with three RBIs and a run scored. Wilson carried over momentum from his perfect 4 for 4 game on Wednesday going 3 for 6 with two RBIs and three runs scored.

Robinson extended his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI single to make it 6-0. Robinson finished 3 for 6 with an RBI and two runs scored. Senior Brett Auerbach’s grounder into a 6-4-3 double play plated Wilson to tack on the seventh run of the frame. Auerbach went 3 or 6 with two RBIs, two runs scored and a double.

“I think that shows all of the talent we have up and down the lineup,” Robinson said. “It’s awesome that you have confidence 1-9 that the guys in the box is going to get a hit.”

A Williamson RBI in the fourth added another run and in the sixth inning sophomore T.J. Reeves broke out of his slump with a single to lead off. After sitting yesterday Reeves went 2 for 4 with a double, two runs scored and no strikeouts. Auerbach’s two-RBI single made it 10-0 after six frames.

“That was big for him today,” Bohannon said. “I’m not worried about T.J. and maybe it was helpful to give him a day to clear his mind. I’m not surprised he had a good day today.”

Alabama senior Kyle Cameron relieved Prielipp in the seventh inning and surrendered the first Crimson run on an RBI single by catcher Matt Thomas. A two-run home run in the eighth inning by Harvard right fielder Jake Suddleson capped Cameron’s 2.0 innings of work. Cameron gave up five hits and three runs while throwing 20 of 31 pitches for strikes.

An error, two walks on Diodati with the bases loaded and junior Jackson Tate’s two-RBI double pushed across the final five runs for Alabama between the seventh and eighth innings. Tate went 2 for 4 with two RBIs, two strikeouts and a double. Redshirt sophomore Sam Praytor completes the list of multi-hit Alabama players going 2 for 3 with a run scored.

Alabama stands as one of the 14 clubs in the nation that remain unbeaten as of Feb. 28. The two dark red hues will rendezvous back at Sewell-Thomas Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m. for game two of the series.

“It was a really complete day for us,” Bohannon said. “A complete effort for us and it’d be helpful to come out and do that again tomorrow.”