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

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A seven-run eighth inning propelled Alabama baseball to a 13-6 win over No. 10 South Carolina on Friday evening at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. With the victory, the 15th-ranked Crimson Tide clinched the series over SC while improving to 21-6 overall and 4-4 in Southeastern Conference play.

Alabama got the scoring going thanks to a five-run third with the Gamecocks cutting into the lead in the fifth by posting a four-spot. The Tide answered with one in the home half of the fifth, but the two-run advantage was not safe as SC evened things up with a pair of runs in the sixth. Both teams were then held scoreless until the eighth when five hits and two free passes led to seven runs for UA.

The Crimson Tide offense racked up 13 hits to go with three walks and two hit-by-pitch for 13 runs on the evening. Eight of the nine starters reached base safely and contributed one run or better in the game while seven of the starters tallied at least one hit. Gage Miller led in hits with a 3-for-4 showing that included a double, one walk and two runs scored. Also contributing multi-hit efforts were the Tide's 3-through-6 hitters in Ian Petrutz, Evan Sleight, Justin Lebron and Kade Snell, who all tallied two knocks apiece. Petrutz and Sleight each homered while Petrutz led the Tide in RBI with five.

Ben Hess was solid in his start, maintaining a no-hitter through 4.0-plus innings. He allowed four runs on three hits and four walks with eight strikeouts in 4.1 innings of work before the Tide bullpen took over. The relief effort featured a combination of four arms with Pierce George (1-0) getting the win thanks to a scoreless eighth inning that included a walk and one strikeout.

From Head Coach Rob Vaughn
"We did a great job with their starter (Dylan Eskew) who is really good, and we were able to get him out early. We got to their bullpen arm Matthew Becker, and we took some good swings off of him early, but he settled in with that breaking ball and kept us off time so we couldn't get comfortable. However, we adjusted well once we got into the eighth and our guys just put together tremendous at-bats all around."

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