It’s no secret that Alabama baseball dominated in midweek games last year, going a perfect 13-0. The Crimson Tide continued that dominance to start the 2026 campaign going a perfect 2-0 in their first midweek contest.
Tuesday’s game: Alabama 3, Samford 2
The Crimson Tide took down the Bulldogs 3-2 in a pitchers’ duel, thanks to a late rally in the eighth inning.
“I told the guys before the game it was going to be 27 outs of hell today, and that’s exactly what it was,” head coach Rob Vaughn said. “It was competitive, it was tough.”
Senior right-handed pitcher JT Blackwood got the start for the Crimson Tide and put together one of the best starts of his collegiate career, tossing six shutout innings, allowing two hits, walking two batters, and striking out two batters on 64 pitches.
“We got an unbelievable start out of Blackwood, probably his best in a Crimson Tide uniform thus far,” Vaughn said.
The game was deadlocked at 0-0 through six and a half innings, then redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Austin Morris came in relief for Blackwood and surrendered a leadoff infield single to Bulldogs rightfielder Jake Souders. Souders then stole second and moved up to third base on a wild pitch from Morris with nobody out.
A few batters later, left fielder Luke Boykin came through with an RBI single to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Boykin moved into scoring position on Morris’s second wild pitch of the inning, which proved costly, as the next batter, designated hitter Trey Higgins, delivered an RBI single to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 2-0.
The Crimson Tide quickly responded in the top half of the eighth inning, freshman Andrew Purdy pinch hit for first baseman Luke Vaughn and was hit by a pitch. Catcher Brady Neal followed that up with a single to right field, putting runners at the corners with one out.
The Crimson Tide captain, Will Plattner, got them on the board thanks to a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 2-1. The next batter, outfielder Peyton Steele, demolished a go-ahead two-run home run to right-center field, his first of the season, flipping the script and giving the Crimson Tide a 3-2 lead.
Redshirt senior Hagan Banks replaced Morris on the mound in the bottom of the eighth and navigated around a one-out single thanks to an unbelievable throw from Neal from his knees behind the plate to catch Gus Gandy trying to steal second base to end the frame.
Banks remained in for the game for the bottom of the ninth inning and gave up a leadoff single, but then recorded three straight strikeouts to pick up the six-out save and give the Crimson Tide a nail-biting victory.
“Hagan Banks being back healthy and we got a good version of him,” Vaughn said. “He was outstanding tonight. I was proud of the toughness and resilience the guys showed, and now have to flip the page and get ready for a tough Alabama State team coming into town tomorrow.”
Wednesday’s game: Alabama 2, Alabama State 1
Alabama squeezed out a win versus Alabama State by a final score of 2-1.
Alabama State was the first to score, with an RBI single from shortstop Breydon Divine. Yet Alabama would get one right back in the third, with shortstop Justin Lebron scoring after a failed pick-off at second from Jaxson Baptist. Alabama would then score another run in the fifth, this time from a passed ball, which allowed outfielder Eric Hines to score from third.
“Credit to Alabama State, they played hard tonight,” Vaughn said. “There’s a standard to what it means to play at Alabama, and we didn’t live up to that tonight… we didn’t play hard and we’re going to fix that.”
Alabama’s pitching put on quite the show. The Crimson Tide turned to six different pitchers throughout the game, with freshman Luke Smyers getting his first-ever start. Smyers lasted two innings, allowing three hits, one earned run and three strikeouts.
The bullpen completely shut down any offensive momentum from Alabama State. They allowed only four hits across seven innings with 10 strikeouts.
Alabama’s next opponent will be a 3-game series against the University of Rhode Island in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide will hope to build upon its 4-game win streak.
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