Alabama Baseball Wins 7th In A Row

The Alabama Crimson Tide baseball team continued their winning ways, grabbing their 7th straight victory on Tuesday afternoon. The Tide defeated Belmont by a score of 3-1 to improve to 22-12 while the Bruins fell to 21-12 with the defeat.

Freshman Ben Hess continued as the Tuesday starter and notched the first win of his career with four shut out innings. Hess had to use 28 pitches in the first inning, walking two but striking out three. In the second Bama’s defense saved Hess a run. Jack Capobianco hit a one out double and moved to third on a wild pitch. Jackson Campbell hit a fly ball to right field and Capobianco challenged William Hamiter’s arm by trying to score. Hamiter unleashed a throw that catcher Dominic Tamez had to leap to snare and came down and got the tag on the runner. A review was needed to uphold the call and it went in the Tide’s favor.

Hess had perfect innings in the 3rd and 4th with four strikeouts. The Tide got on the board in the bottom of the third with two runs. Bryce Eblin lead off with a single and moved to second on a hit and run when Tamez grounded out. Jim Jarvis blistered a single up the middle to plate Eblin. Jarvis advanced on a balk and scored on a hit from Zane Denton. Denton tried to stretch his safety into a double but was thrown out to end the inning.

Another freshman right hander, Luke Holman, followed Hess. Hess finished his outing throwing four innings allowing one hit, two walks, and struck out seven men over 66 pitches. Holman allowed a one out double but escaped the 5th with no further damage. Bama plated their final run in the bottom of the 5th. Tamez led off with a single and advanced on a sac bunt by Jarvis. Denton did his thing and singled him in to make the score 3-0.

Holman was touched for a single to start the 6th and another single put two runners on. With two outs and a 2-0 count on Logan Jarvis coach Brad Bohannon called Hunter Hoopes out of the bullpen. Jarvis ended up walking on a 3-2 pitch but Hoopes induced a ground out to strand the bases loaded. Hoopes allowed a single to start the 7th but Tommy Seidl threw the runner out trying for a double and the next two batters went down in order.

Hunter Furtado took over in the 8th for the Tide. Two walks, a stolen base, and a ground out put one run on the board for the Bruins. Yet another freshman, Braylon Myers, (no relation) took over in the 9th and allowed a two out single but struck out two to earn his first career save.

The Tide hit 8-29 on the blustery, windy day. Bama drew three walks, struck out five times, and left six men on base. Belmont finished 6-31 with five walks, 11 strikeouts, and eight left on base. Denton was the big bat with a 2-3 night with two runs driving in and a walk. Jarvis was 2-3 with one run, one RBI, and one sac bunt. Belmont had the only two extra base hits on the day, doubles by Capobianco.

Nice midweek win heading into the weekend trip to Knoxville to take on the number one Tennessee Vols. The three freshmen that pitched all did a very good job. Hess is improving start by start and is working toward being a help in weekend series down the road. The defense played a clean game and threw out two base runners. Denton made several nifty plays at third base. The team is focused and playing at a high level right now. Earlier in the year the Tide very well might have lost this game.

The Tide will travel to Knoxville on Thursday for the Easter Weekend series. I believe the SEC might be the only conference not doing Thursday-Saturday series during this week. Friday’s game is set for 5:30 p.m. CT. Saturday the game will be at 5 p.m. CT and Sunday’s will be at noon. All games can be seen on the SEC Network Plus.

RTR

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