Alabama senior Brett Auerbach dug into the batter’s box with no outs and with runners on first and second. Instead of hitting away, Auerbach laid a picture-perfect bunt down the third-base line to load the bases. During the next at-bat, a wild pitch scored junior Jackson Tate from third base to end the 10th-longest game in Alabama program history. The Crimson Tide escaped with a 2-1 win.

“I knew if I got it down, we had a shot,” Auerbach said. “I liked our odds there, and I was lucky it didn’t roll foul.”

The pitching staffs for both teams flexed their muscles throughout the 13-inning contest. Alabama (14-0) set a new school record for single-game strikeouts with 24. Freshman Connor Prielipp sat down a career-high 11 batters and moved his total to 35 for the season. Sophomore Chase Lee and junior Brock Guffey (3-0), who was awarded the win, came on in relief and struck out eight and five batters, respectively. Lee’s five innings pitched and eight strikeouts are both career highs.

Lipscomb sat down 17 Crimson Tide hitters. Sophomore starter and Hoover High School alum Scott Elgin gave the Bisons six innings of five-hit baseball while striking out 10 and allowing one run that was unearned. Sophomore Tyler Guilfoil struck out six in his four innings of relief. The pitching for Lipscomb kept the Bisons in the game, as their offense produced three hits throughout the game and none between its two singles in the fifth and 13th innings.

“I want to give those guys credit,” Alabama coach Brad Bohannon said. “We’re going to see some real stuff in the next 10 weeks, and we made some mistakes tonight, and I don’t think we brought our ‘A game’ offensively.”

Four of the nine Crimson Tide starters combined for 10 of the 11 hits for Alabama. Auerbach led the way, going 4 for 7 with a stolen base and a run scored in the third inning, courtesy of an RBI single from redshirt sophomore Sam Praytor.

Alabama’s 4-5-6 hitters in Praytor and sophomores Drew Williamson and T.J. Reeves each went 2 for 6 on the night. Tate entered the game in center field in the ninth inning and filed the only hit outside Alabama’s 1-4-5-6 hitters with a leadoff single in the 13th inning to set off the game-winning heroics.

“We weren’t quite dialed [in] tonight,” Bohannon said. “Way too many strikeouts and called third [strikes] for my liking.”

The Crimson Tide’s first and fourth leading hitters this season, junior Tyler Gentry and freshman Owen Diodati, combined to go 0 for 9 in the game. Gentry, who was batting a team-high .467 prior to Friday’s contest, struck out three times and was issued two intentional walks. Diodati, batting .350 prior to Friday, went 0 for 5 with two strikeouts.

Alabama had several opportunities to close out the game before the 13th. Senior Kolby Robinson had two runners on with two outs in the 10th inning and grounded out to first base. Praytor stepped to the plate in the 11th inning with the bases loaded but struck out swinging.

“We certainly had our chances to end it earlier,” Bohannon said. “We were a few plays away, and that cost us a few innings of pitching, which could come back to get us later in the series.”

The win keeps Alabama as one of only two unbeaten teams remaining in the country after Friday night, joining fellow SEC member Florida (14-0). Both Tennessee and North Carolina State lost their games on Friday. The Crimson Tide moves just one win away from tying the best start to a season in school history. Alabama will have a shot at achieving that historic milestone on Saturday with Game 2 of the series at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.

“Those games like that are a good experience for us, it’s good to play an extra-inning game,” Bohannon said. “Overall, just proud of our kids and the resiliency they showed.”