re: Bama Baseball 33-24 (13-17) (2023-24)

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Rick Pendley @alagrandslammer·23m
Alabama Baseball First Week Highlights
-Have yet to trail in 5-0 start
-2nd in NCAA in team ERA (0.88)
-Leads nation with three shutouts
-TJ McCants leads SEC and 3rd in NCAA in RBI (13), plus homered in three straight games.

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A season-high 15 hits helped 17th-ranked Alabama to a 14-2 win over Valparaiso on Friday afternoon at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. With the victory, the Crimson Tide improved to 6-0 on the season.

Alabama wasted no time getting on the board on Friday, exploding for a six-run second. Valparaiso countered with a two-run third, but that would be all for the Beacons. The Crimson Tide posted eight runs over the final three innings of play, including a four-run fourth and a pair two-run frames in the fifth and sixth for the run-rule victory.

Gage Miller highlighted Alabama's offense, homering for a third time in the last four games as part of a 2-for-4 showing. The junior added a double, two runs scored and a team-high five RBI to go with his roundtripper. Mac Guscette and Will Hodo led the Tide in hits, each contributing three on the day. Guscette reached base safely in all four plate appearances, finishing 3-for-3 with a double and a hit-by-pitch while tallying one RBI and two runs scored. Hodo went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs of his own.

Alabama's pitching staff continued its solid play to start the season. Ben Hess (2-0) notched his second win as many starts, giving up two runs on four hits and a walk with five punchouts across his scheduled 4.0 innings of work. He was followed out of the bullpen by Tyler Fay and Sam Mitchell, with the relief duo holding Valpo to only one hit and a walk to go with a strikeout across the final 3.0 frames.

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Alabama baseball clinched a series victory over Valparaiso with a 13-3 win on Saturday afternoon at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The 17th-ranked Crimson Tide is now 7-0 on the young season.

Valparaiso delivered the first blow on Saturday, scoring two in the top of the first. Alabama answered with a seven-spot in the home half, hammering four home runs in the frame to make it a 7-2 affair after one full. The Beacons plated one in the third but would add no more, as the Tide went on to score six unanswered for the 13-3 run-rule victory in seven innings.

Gage Miller, Ian Petrutz, Coleman Mizell and Justin Lebron all contributed a homer in that fourth. Miller led off the game with a solo shot, part of his 3-for-4 day that included a team-high three RBI and two runs scored. Two batters later, Petrutz went deep, finishing his afternoon 3-for with two RBI and a pair of runs. Later in the frame, Mizell and Lebron went back-to-back with Mizell recording two RBI to Lebron's one on his solo homer.

Aidan Moza (2-0) got the win on Saturday, allowing three runs (two earned) on three hits and two walks with four strikeouts in his start. Coulson Buchanan and Jackson Baker followed out of the pen, with the duo posting 3.0 scoreless, hitless frames and tallying three strikeouts.

From Head Coach Rob Vaughn
"We talk all the time about wanting to throw the first punch, and obviously Valparaiso threw the first one today. But we always say if they're going to throw a jab, we are going to throw the haymaker – and we definitely did that. We answered in the bottom of the first with unbelievable at-bats and just a relentless approach offensively, and that was the key today."

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