Wilson's homer lifts Bama past Bulldogs

TUSCALOOSA | It remains to be seen if the University of Alabama baseball team’s postseason hopes came down to one swing of Ross Wilson’s bat — but it felt that way on Sunday.

Wilson hit a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Alabama a lead and reliever Austin Graham made it stand up as the Crimson Tide edged Mississippi State 4-3 to win the Southeastern Conference series at Sewell-Thomas Field.

The victory was termed a “must win” by Wilson, the Crimson Tide second baseman, and head coach Jim Wells. It put the Crimson Tide at 8-10 in the SEC and moved UA into sole possession of second place in the West Division, a half-game ahead of Arkansas.

Alabama, which put 21 runs on the board in the first game of the series, had struggled offensively since that point and trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the seventh inning. MSU reliever Michael Busby retired the first two hitters of the inning, but freshman shortstop Josh Rutledge drew a two-out walk to bring Wilson to the plate.

“It was a fastball inside,” Wilson said, describing the Busby pitch that he blasted over the left-field wall. “I like it there and I put a good swing on it.

“We needed to score that inning,” he said. “[Aaron] Weatherford [the MSU closer] probably has the second-best arm in the SEC and we knew he was coming in the next inning if they had the lead.

“I worked a lot with Coach [Mitch] Gaspard and Dax [Norris] this week,” said Wilson, who had three home runs in the series. “I’m always going to be an aggressive hitter, but I needed to be a little more patient. Having an extra day off during the week really helped me because we worked on a lot of things.”

Graham held MSU scoreless over the final two innings, although the Bulldogs did have two base runners in the top of the ninth. Catcher Ryan Duffy then hit a hard ground ball with two outs, but Tide first baseman Wes Henderson speared the ball and stepped on first base for the final out.

“It was a must win, although we didn’t seem to respond well to that in the beginning,” Wells said.

Mississippi State, which scored first in each of the three games in the series, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. MSU third baseman Russ Sneed drove in Ryan Collins with a two-out RBI double.

The Bulldogs extended their lead to 3-0 in the top of the second inning. Collins drove in the second MSU run with an RBI single and Grant Hogue scored the third running, coming in from third base on a passed ball.

Alabama got two runs back in the bottom of the second inning. Kent Matthes led off the inning with a single, and catcher Kyle Moore followed with a double. Henderson singled to score Matthes and Moore came home when third baseman Jake Smith hit into a fielder’s choice.

With the score at 3-2, starters Robert Phares of UA and Justin Pigott of MSU settled into a pitchers’ duel, with neither allowing a run over the next four innings.

“Phares is a slow starter, but he sort of hung in there and got us to the point where Graham could be effective,” Wells said.

Graham picked up the win, raising his record to 3-1.

“He has progressed from not being very good at all to getting guys out with just a curve ball to where he is now, where he has all four pitches working for him,” Wells said. “We feel comfortable with him in any role.”

Busby (0-4) took the loss for MSU. The Bulldogs are now 15-23 overall and 4-14 in the SEC.

The Crimson Tide will host Lipscomb on Tuesday and then face Auburn in an SEC series beginning on Friday.

(Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225.)