Ala. The Alabama Crimson Tide baseball program has experienced rapid growth during the second year under Rob Vaughn’s leadership. The Vaughn-led team’s astonishing performance of winning 21 out of the 22 games, subsequently beating Texas A&M, pushed them from an unranked position to number 12 in the nation.
During a cold Thursday evening in Sewell-Thomas Stadium, the field presented an opportunity for the Alabama squad to measure themselves up against the last year’s champion, Tennessee. Game one ended with Alabama winning 6-5.
“The credit goes sitting out there and willing to crash and burn,” quoted Alabama’s second year head coach Rob Vaughn with a big grin.
The ball was given to a pair of lefty staff aces on both sides. Zane Adams (4-0, 3.65 ERA) was facing an offense ranked second in the nation for runs scored, and for Liam Doyle (3-1, 2.03 ERA) came into the night with two earned runs allowed, 53 strikeouts in 25 innings. They all ended up being the two and one pitchers.
“That guy is elite,” Vaughn stated. “We watched him last year at Ole Miss. They’ve worked on him a ton, and as good as he was last year, he’s better now.”
It was not long before the defending champions destroyed the Vols. In the first inning, after getting a two-out walk, the first basinman blasted a homerun followed off a shot, off the bat of Andrew Fischer over the center field wall, placing the tides in a hole.
The Vols extended the lead in the second half, adding another unearned run to make it 3-0. The anchors did respond back with astonishing silence. A pair of run scoring walks, followed by a bases-clearing double by Justin Lebron all contributed to the key five run rally.
Over the course of the stretch, Doyle let loose an astonishing amount of season highs, including six hits, five earned runs, and four walks.
“Vaughn did state, comment that I thought we did a good job knocking this guy off the grid. Turns up a heater, and begins to pitch backwards a bit.”
On the other hand, Adams managed to calm down after the loud start, while his teammates tacked on yet another run during the third inning stretching the score to 6-3
“Zane’s the same dude everyday,” Vaughn said. “That’s why he dashes out on Friday nights. It’s a slow heartbeat you know what you’re going to get out of him every time he toes the rubber.”
His night ended one out into the sixth after two consecutive base hits from the Volunteers put two more runners on the board, cutting the deficit to one.
Alabama (22-1 overall, 4-0 SEC) picked up some important defensive plays as well. Right fielder Bryce Fowler leapt to catch a ball at the warning track to finish the seventh inning, followed by Justin Lebron with an unassisted double play and a strikeout by Carson Ozmer to end the eighth, all while the tension mounted for Tennessee in the scoring position with no outs. William Plattner completed the defensive plays by tagging out the only Tennessee runner at second trying to steal in the ninth to seal the game.
Game 2 is set for Friday at 6 p.m. CT at The Joe. Funny enough, the last team to hand Tennessee back to back losses was Alabama last year in Tuscaloosa on March 16-17.
