Alabama Punches Ticket to Regional Final; Defeats USC Upstate 7-5

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 7 Alabama takes down USC Upstate 7-5 to advance to the regional final for the first time since 2023 and under head coach Rob Vaughn.

Despite a late start due to Oklahoma State/Alabama State reaching extra innings and a weather delay, Zane Adams turned in a gritty start: tossing six innings of two-run (0 earned) baseball, scattering six hits and three walks, while punching out five Spartans, setting the tone for Saturday evening's contest.

The Alabama offense bashed in the middle innings, largely due to a pair of home runs — a three-run shot in the third by Eric Hines and a leadoff solo shot in the sixth by Justin Lebron.

A half dozen errors almost did the Crimson Tide in, as all five of USC Upstate's runs were unearned, including a throwing error by Jason Torres that allowed the tying run to come to the plate in the bottom of the ninth.

The Alabama offense took the field first, as the Crimson Tide was the contest's designated away team

Despite a pair of early outs, Alabama threatened in the first courtesy of a Brady Neal single and a Jason Torres walk, but USC Upstate starter Chris Torres ended the threat by striking out John Lemm.

Despite no runs crossing the plate, Alabama's opening inning proved to be effective in forcing Torres out of the game after two innings, forcing him to throw 25 pitches in the first frame.

Zane Adam's command started off shaky in the bottom of the first, forcing a groundout despite tossing two straight balls to begin the game and walking the very next batter.

USC Upstate catcher Tyler Lang then singled after seeing a pair of balls to put two runners on with one out early, but the southpaw dug his heels in, picking up a swinging strikeout and a fielder's choice to end the inning.

Both sides threatened to score in the second, but once again, Torres and Adams nullified the Alabama and USC Upstate offenses, respectively.

Alabama opened up the scoring in a loud way in the top of the third. As rain began to hit Sewell-Thomas Stadium, Jason Torres ripped a two-out double to left to score Lebron, who had singled and then stolen second earlier in the frame.

After the Torres RBI, John Lemm got plunked the very next pitch to put two on with two gone for Eric Hines.

The young pup delivered, muscling a three-run home run to right to push Alabama out to a 4-0 lead.

The Spartans did respond in the bottom of the third with a sac fly to cut the Alabama advantage to 4-1.

The Tide and the Spartans did a similar dance in the fourth, with Alabama scoring a lone run in the top of the inning with a Lebron RBI-single and USC Upstate responding once again with a sac fly. Alabama advantage, 5-2.

Alabama began to pull away slightly in the fifth and sixth, scoring a single run in both innings; a Peyton Steele bases-loaded walk in the fifth and the aforementioned Lebron solo shot in the sixth.

Zane Adams held up his end of the bargain in those frames, holding the Spartans to 0 runs to give the Tide a 7-2 advantage going into the final stretch of the ballgame.

However, USC Upstate refused to go away. Matthew Heiberger entered the game in the seventh, and a leadoff error set the table for a two-run, no-doubt Johnny Sweeny blast to suddenly make the 1-0 game of the Tuscaloosa Regional an interesting ballgame.

Heiberger posted an important zero in the eighth, allowing a lone one-out single.

The ninth inning turned into a nail-biter for the Crimson Tide. A sequence of a groundout, single, groundout set the table for a game-ending throw by Jason Torres, who sailed the ball over the head of first baseman Luke Vaughn to keep the Spartans alive with two runners on, and the tying run coming to the plate.

A Trey Bentley RBI-double down the left field line cut the Alabama lead to two, bringing the winning run to bat with two outs.

On a 1-0 count, Spartan third baseman Jake Armsey tattooed a fly ball to straight-away center, but it fell a few feet short of a walk-off home run, allowing Alabama to escape with a 7-5 victory.

The winner of USC Upstate/Oklahoma State on Sunday afternoon will play Alabama next, which is currently scheduled for 7 PM CT.

For more Alabama Baseball, Basketball, and Football content from Simon Besnoy, follow him on Twitter at @SimonBesnoy and stay tuned to Tide1009.com for daily news.