A six-run third by the offense, combined with a solid effort on the mound from five pitchers helped Alabama baseball come away with an 8-0 shutout win on Tuesday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. With the victory, the Crimson Tide improves to 6-2 overall.

"It was a good win for us,” said Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon. “I was glad to see us put up a big number in the third. I thought all of the guys that pitched tonight were amazing; we struck them out 15 times. We also continued to play good defense behind them, so it was a really nice night for us.”

Alabama jumped out front early, putting up a six-spot in the third to put the game out of reach. The Tide added single tallies in the fifth and six to push the advantage to eight by night’s end. The offense was spread across the board with eight of the nine starters tallying a hit. Redshirt junior Gene Wood highlighted the offense, finishing 2-for-3 with a team-high two runs and a pair of RBI to go with two walks.

North Alabama would never threaten the UA lead, as five Crimson Tide pitchers combined for a season-high 15 strikeouts while allowing only two hits. The effort on the mound was led by junior Wil Freeman (1-0), as the right-hander tossed 4.0 scoreless innings with four punchouts for the win. Four more UA arms worked the final 5.0 frames, allowing just one hit and striking out 11 with each pitcher recording at least two punchouts.

The Tide’s huge six-run third kicked off the night’s scoring. Senior Keith Holcombe began the inning with a double down the line and was brought home in the very next at-bat thanks to a two-run home run from sophomore Tyler Gentry. The Tide bats then rallied off three consecutive singles, with the third coming from Wood to bring in one more run. The five straight hits forced a UNA pitching change, still with runners on the corners and no outs.

The new UNA arm retired the first batter he faced, but a balk in the next at-bat moved one run across and a walk in that same at-bat put two on for Kolby Robinson. The junior sent a single back up the chute to score one more and move a Tide runner to third. Brett Auerbach took advantage of the man 90 feet away with the junior sending a sacrifice fly to center to score the frame’s final run, setting it at 6-0 after three innings of play.

Alabama added one more in the fifth, using a bases loaded hit-by-pitch for Holcombe to cross one. The Tide put up a final tally in the next inning on an RBI-single from Wood, making it an 8-0 affair, the eventual final.

The two teams meet once again on Wednesday for a 3 p.m. CT first pitch at The Joe. Alabama’s starter is still to be announced with North Alabama calling on junior right-hander Kyle Moore. Fans can catch Wednesday’s matchup on SEC Network+.

 

 

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