Alabama Baseball And Tuesday Nights Don't Mix

The Capital City Classic is not a game that the Alabama Crimson Tide has had much success in. The annual game in Montgomery, in its eighth year, has been won seven times for the Auburn Tigers. On Tuesday, the Tigers struck early and often, pounding the Tide in to submission by a score of 10-1.

Things started off promising for 'Bama in the top of the first as Connor Short lined a one out double down the third base line. When Chandler Taylor rifled a single to right, it appeared that the Tide would get off to a lead. However, right fielder Daniel Robert came up firing and in a close play at the plate Short was called out. Auburn scored four in their half of the first, as they hit for the cycle, with a single, double, triple and home run to take a 4-0 lead.

Once again 'Bama threatened in the second, getting the first two batters on with Cobie Vance singling and Chance Vincent being hit by a pitch. Will Haynie walked with one out to load the bases, but the Tide was only able to push one run across when Hunter Webb was hit by a pitch as well.

Auburn continued the merry-go-round, scoring once in the second, twice in third, and once in the fourth, fifth and sixth. Afrenee Greer had three hits for the Tigers, including a long home run off the top of the scoreboard in left center field, to go with a double and a single. Jordan Ebert also had three hits for AU, and three players added two each. Blake Logan had the other home run for the Tigers. Auburn, who came into the game hitting .325 as a team, rapped out 15 hits in the game, and not one of them was cheap.

The Tide collected eight hits in the game with Vance being the only player with more than one. 'Bama worked four walks and had two hit batters and stranded 11 men on base in the game. Jon Keller started for the Tide and was the losing pitcher in his two innings of work. He was followed by Brock Love, Dylan Duarte, Tyler Adams, Zac Rogers and Colton Freeman. Rogers and Freeman were the only pitchers not to allow a run, and Freeman struck out three batters in his one inning.

Alabama fell to 15-9 with the loss and Auburn improved to 12-13. The game does not count in the SEC standings, and the teams will play a three game series in Tuscaloosa on May 6-8. Coach Mitch Gaspard's record fell to 1-6 in The Classic, but he holds an outstanding 15-5 record vs Auburn in SEC regular season and tournament play. This game, if it ever had any usefulness, has long outlived itself as far as Alabama goes. A de facto home game for Auburn that seems to mean much more to the Tigers than the Tide is not something that many in Tuscaloosa would like to see continued. Perhaps a rotation of Birmingham and Montgomery might be an idea to consider.

After the game the team boarded their bus and continued on to Athens, Georgia, where they take on the Bulldogs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The first two games are set for 6:00 p.m and game three will be an 11:00 am affair. All games will be available on the SEC Network.

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