Alabama baseball made quick work of Alcorn State with a 3-0 win on Wednesday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The Crimson Tide (22-17) snapped a four-game losing streak with the win, while the Braves (8-28) lost their tenth game in a row.
It wasn’t a dominant win for Alabama, which finished with just three hits on the night. No Alabama pitcher recorded a strikeout until Tyler Adams struck out two batters in the top of the seventh inning.
“I’m glad we won,” coach Brad Bohannon said. “Three hits, four walks, two HBPs and a bad infield error. I’m glad we won.”
Alabama got second baseman Chandler Avant and outfielder Joe Breaux for the game, both of whom missed Tuesday night’s loss to Samford with minor injuries. Avant was 0-for-3 with a walk, and Breaux went 0-for-4.
Avant drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fourth and came home on a double from first baseman Hunter Alexander. A fly ball moved Alexander to third, and a second fly ball scored him to make the lead 2-0. Alexander singled in the sixth, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored when the catcher threw the ball away going to third. Alexander was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI to lead the offense.
Junior lefty Dylan Duarte made his first start of the season, throwing two no-hit innings on just 21 pitches. He was relieved by freshman Brady Greene, who threw 2 1/3 shutout innings during his second appearance in the last month. Senior Tyler Adams threw a career-high 3 2/3 innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out three. He picked up the win.
“I didn’t really have the curveball going too much,” Adams said. “The fastball, I was able to start out over the plate and get some ground balls out of it. I had some pretty good defense behind me to help me out.”
Connor Stutts came in to pitch a clean ninth inning and earn the save. Their appearances will help Alabama prepare its bullpen for the weekend series against Auburn.
“There’s only so many innings and at bats to go around,” Bohannon said. “You find a balance, playing the best and most prepared guys and trying to develop and all that. With all that said, it’s hard to expect a pitcher or hitter to be sharp if they haven’t played a lot.”
The game lasted only two hours and ten minutes, Alabama’s shortest game of the season.
Auburn arrives this weekend ranked as high as No. 21 in the country, but has just a one-game lead on Alabama in the conference standings.
“We’ve got to play better Friday night,” Bohannon said. “It’ll be a real challenge. Awesome opportunity to face maybe the best pitcher in the country, a ranked team, an in-state rival. A tremendous, tremendous opportunity for our team. We’ll need to play our absolute best baseball this weekend to be really competitive. We’ll have to play better than we have the last two nights. I expect our kids will be excited. I think we’ll play our best baseball.”
Reach Ben Jones at ben@tidesports.com or 205-722-0196.
