Alabama's Mikey White Leads Tide Over Samford

It was the Mikey White show on Wednesday at Samford University. The Birmingham native enjoyed being in his home city, going 5-5 with two home runs, four RBIs and scoring four runs, leading Alabama to a 9-5 victory over the Bulldogs. White tied a school record for hits in a game, becoming the 30th Tide player to have five hits in one contest.

'Bama jumped out early as White led off the game with his fourth home run of the season. After two outs, DH Wade Wass blasted a long shot into the night for his fourth home run and a 2-0 first inning lead. The Tide scored a single run in the second when White singled, and scored on a double by Georgie Salem. In the fourth inning, Will Haynie singled and White blasted his second home run of the night, and fifth of the season, over the center field fence.

Starting pitcher Geoffrey Bramblett was cruising along, through 3 2/3 innings, not having allowed any hits up to that point. With two outs in the fourth Samford got their first hit of the night. Two walks and an infield single followed, chasing Bramblett from the mound in favor of Ray Castillo. Castillo allowed an infield single, and notched a strike out to end the inning, but the Bulldog's closed the gap to 5-2. In the bottom of the fifth, Castillo allowed back to back solo home runs to Drew McWhorter and Heath Quinn to pull the Dog's within one at 5-4.

Jon Keller pitched the sixth and allowed a double, and struck out one batter. Jay Shaw relieved and pitched two scoreless innings, the seventh and eighth. Shaw allowed three singles and struck out two. 'Bama put the game away in the top of the eighth by scoring four times. Casey Hughston started the rally by being hit by a pitch. Hunter Webb, pinch hitting for Haynie, laid down a bunt and beat it out for a single. Chance Vincent singled to score Hughston, but was thrown out at second after the throw to the plate. White's fifth hit of the night plated Webb for a 7-4 lead, which quickly became 9-4 when Ben Moore blasted his team leading seventh home run of the season. Taylor Guilbeau pitched the ninth for the Tide and allowed a run on two hits, a walk, and a wild pitch. The lanky lefty struck out two batters in the inning.

Bramblett was the winning pitcher, giving the freshman righty a 4-1 won-loss record. Cody Pugh was the losing pitcher for the Bulldog's. White had five of the teams 11 hits on the night. The game was the Tide's 25th double digit hit game of the year, and the team batting average is now .281. The team has 34 home runs on the season, the most for the Tide since the bats were changed four seasons ago. The previous high was 28 in the 2011 season.

*Mikey White was 5-5, with two home runs, four RBIs and four runs scored.

*Ben  Moore was 1-4 with a home run and two RBIs, running his hitting streak to 10 games.

*Wade Wass was 1-4 with a home run and a RBI.

*Georgie Salem was 1-5 with a double and a RBI.

*Will Haynie was 1-3 with a run scored.

*Chance Vincent was 1-5 with a run scored.

*Hunter Webb was 1-1 with a run scored.

*Austen Smith was 0-2 and drew three walks.

Smith remains the teams leading hitter with a .356 average, and slow leads in RBIs (31), slugging percentage (.576) and on base percentage (.468), and walks with 23. He is second in home runs with six, and tied for second in doubles with 11. Ben Moore is second in average (.317), leads in home runs with seven, is second in RBIs with 30, and leads in total bases with 91. White is hitting .295 with five home runs and 26 RBIs. Wass has a .293 average with four home runs and 27 RBIs and leads the team with 16 doubles.

Keller and Spencer Turnbull lead the team in victories with five each. Justin Kamplain, Thomas Burrows and Bramblett have four wins each. Burrows is the save leader with nine, and has the best ERA at 0.66, having allowed only two runs in 19 appearances (all out of the bullpen.) Kamplain has struck out the most batters with 57. Turnbull has pitched the most innings with 66. The team ERA is 2.90.

It was good to have a solid midweek performance and the win gives the team a record of 30-15. With fifth ranked and SEC leading Florida coming to town this weekend the Tide needed to have a sharp game. Florida leads 'Bama by two full games in the overall conference standings with a 15-6 record. The Gators also have a 30-15 overall record. The Tide needs to win the series to further their push to be a national seed and host a regional in the NCAA tournament. Seeding in the SEC tournament will also be important moving forward.

The games times are: Friday, 6:35 p.m. Saturday, 3:05 p.m., and will be televised, and Sunday at 2:05 p.m. Turnbull, Kamplain and Keller will be the starting pitchers in the series.

Bama Baseball Fever, Catch It!

Roll Tide Y'all   Roger

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