Alabama baseball was down 4-1 to Vanderbilt entering the sixth inning Thursday night, in danger of losing a third straight game. However, Tuscaloosa native left fielder Eric Hines and catcher John Lemm had other plans.
The Commodores’ starting pitcher, right-hander Connor Fennell, held the Crimson Tide to just one run and four hits through the first five innings. Fennell wasn’t blowing away hitters with an upper-90s fastball like a lot of SEC aces do; he was sitting 85 to 87 miles per hour for most of the night, but the Crimson Tide struggled to figure him out.
“Connor Fennell works with the most incredible pace of all time,” head coach Rob Vaughn said. “He might be the only pitcher in the country that every team that hits against him has to kind of change their pre-pitch routine because it’s like the second your eyes come, here he comes.”
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Fennel surrendered a Brady Neal single to right center to end his night. Commodores head coach Tim Corbin pulled Fennel a little too soon after throwing just 70 pitches. Corbin called upon left-hander Jakob Schulz for the left-on-left matchup against center fielder Bryce Fowler, who walked on four pitches.
That would be the only batter Schulz faced; Luke Guth took over to face Hines, who represented the tying run. Hines wasted no time; he got a first pitch hanging a breaking ball and blasted a 383-foot three-run homer the other way into the Commodores’ bullpen to even the score at 4-4.
Hines wasn’t an everyday starter to start the season; in fact, if it weren’t for losing Oklahoma transfer Sam Christensen and Northern Kentucky transfer Logen Devenport with season-ending injuries, he may have never cracked the starting lineup like most of the Crimson Tide freshmen.
“You hate losing Sam, you hate losing Dev,” Vaughn said. “But that’s given a guy like Eric a lot of opportunities, and he just keeps getting better, and every one of these experiences he’s had is just going to make him better and better. Even the failure is going to make him better.”
Hines has taken full advantage of those opportunities, hitting .292, with six home runs, 15 RBIs and a .923 OPS.
“I think we knew this is what Eric was gonna be at some point in his career,” Vaughn said. “I think the situation has dictated, and he’s kind of kicked the door down and dictated it to happen a little sooner than maybe we had kind of mapped out.”
The ballgame remained tied entering the bottom of the ninth when Lemm dug into the batter’s box to lead things off. Lemm made a crucial base running mistake in the bottom of the fifth, getting caught with the hidden ball trick at third base in a situation with nobody out and runners at the corners. However, he had an opportunity to redeem himself.
“My whole 15-16 years of playing baseball never seen that in my life,” Lemm said. “Great that it happened in a situation that I probably needed to score there. Obviously not that great, but obviously just in the past now. Obviously embarrassing.”
The first pitch Lemm saw was a 91 mph fastball that he said he probably should have crushed, but fouled straight back. The second pitch was another relatively hittable 92 mph heater that he fouled off. Down in the count 0-2, Lemm was in protect mode and laid off a 93 mph fastball up and away for ball one.
The next pitch was a 94 mph heater well above the strike zone that Lemm did not miss as he tomhawked it to dead center field for a 397-foot walk-off homer, sending the Crimson Tide and all the fans at The Joe into a frenzy.
“Obviously got down in the count 0-2, just kind of in protect mode,” Lemm said. “Just get a pitch I can handle and try and at least get on base to start the inning for the guys. Took the fastball up. I saw a fastball I thought that was at my belt, but apparently it was nearly chest high, and just put a good swing on it.”
In a game the Crimson Tide desperately needed to win to keep its hopes of hosting a regional alive, the hometown kid Hines and Lemm, who made a costly mistake earlier in the ballgame, stepped up and whilled their team to a come-from-behind victory.
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