Alabama Baseball Falls in Series Opener with No. 23 Arkansas, 5-1

Alabama baseball fell, 5-1, to 23^rd-ranked Arkansas in the series opener on Thursday evening inside the Hoover Met. With the loss, the Crimson Tide moves to 23-22 on the season and 8-14 in conference play.

“We had some opportunities; we had three or four innings with some chances there,” said Alabama head coach Mitch Gaspard. “Their pitchers were really good, but we have got to find a way to get our offense on track. We came to win a series, so we have to come back out tomorrow and move past this game.”

Eight of the nine Alabama starters collected one hit on the evening, but the offense was unable to put them together at key points in the game. Kyle Overstreet collected the team’s lone RBI on his 10^th double of the season, while Mikey White scored the Alabama run.

Alabama’s Taylor Guilbeau and Arkansas’ Trey Killian both put together solid pitching efforts, holding the opposition scoreless through the first five full frames. Arkansas would break the stalemate in the top of the sixth, putting together a pair of runs. The Razorbacks started the inning with a single and then a double to put two in scoring position with no outs. An infield groundout to second would advance the runners and plate the game’s first run. Guilbeau would record a strikeout with a wild pitch in the next at-bat allowing the second run of the inning to cross.

Mikey White led off the bottom half of the sixth with a double and then a flyout to deep center allowed the Crimson Tide shortstop to move to third. Overstreet followed with a double in the gap to bring across Alabama’s first run and set the score at 2-1 through six full.

In the seventh, Arkansas led off with a double and then followed that with a two-run homer to left to widen the lead to 4-1. Arkansas would add one more in the ninth to move in front 5-1.

Guilbeau tossed 7.0 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits, but kept the Crimson Tide in the game all evening. The senior left-hander tossed a season-high tying 106 pitches, which he also tossed on March 6 vs. Lipscomb. Killian tossed 6.1 innings of one-run baseball for Arkansas and struck out nine on the way to the win.

“I thought Guilbeau gave us a real chance tonight,” Gaspard said of his senior starter. “He threw the ball really well and kept us in the game.”

Alabama and Arkansas will meet for game two of the series tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network once again. The Crimson Tide will send freshman right-hander Jake Walters to the mound while the Razorbacks will counter with sophomore righty Dominic Taccolini.