There’s a pattern to Alabama baseball’s early-season wins. The 5-2 Crimson Tide are 5-0 in games in which they’ve scored a run in the first inning. Alabama scored in the first inning in the first and third games of the weekend series against Ball State, going 2-0 in those games. The Cardinals scored in the first inning of the second series of the game and went on to win 8-5.
The scoring in the first inning has been helped by leadoff man Joe Breaux. He has gotten on base to lead off in four of those five wins, posting a home run, two doubles and a hit by pitch. Breaux is batting .333 with a .515 on-base percentage so far this season.
Alabama also had more success during the 2018 season when it got on the board early. Despite finishing 27-29, Alabama was 9-7 when scoring in the first inning and 6-4 when holding a lead after the first inning.
Similarly, the team struggled when other teams were able to score in the first inning. Alabama was 4-10 when trailing after one inning and 2-8 when the other team scored in the first inning but Alabama did not.
Alabama outscored its opponents in the first inning 38-33 for the entirety of the 2018 season. So far this season, the Crimson Tide has outscored its opponents 11-3 in the first inning.
