HATTIESBURG, Miss.- The No. 14 Alabama Crimson Tide baseball team suffered its second loss of the season to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles 9-7 on Tuesday night at Pete Joe Park. The matchup marked the final non-conference game before SEC play and although there is still a long way to go in the season, this team has shown what it is made of early on.
Here are the takeaways from the first part of Alabama’s year.
Hot Offense
The Crimson Tide’s scorching hot offense has been a consistent piece to Alabama’s success. So far this year, the team has recorded double-digit runs in 10 of its 17 games and all but one everyday starter is batting over .300 including two batting over .400. Prior to the Southern Miss game, Alabama ranked No. 15 in home runs (30) and scoring (167 runs, 10.4 PG), No. 7 in batting average (.345), No. 11 in hits (185), and No. 10 in on-base percentage (.464), according to NCAA Baseball. Against Lipscomb, the offense recorded two season highs, a 20-run game which is the most runs in a game this season, and 40 total runs, the most scored in a weekend.
Pitching Still Needs Work
With ace Ben Hess returning from injury, Alabama looked to have a solid weekend rotation in Hess-Riley Quick-Aidan Moza. However, Quick underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery within the first week of the season, shaking up the rotation and while Alabama has yet to solidify the position, the team has seen success with Moza, Greg Farone, and Hagan Banks in that role. Braylon Myers, Tyler Fay, Jansen Kenty, Zane Probst, Coulson Buchanan, Pierce George, and Austin Morris have made appearances out of the bullpen and Matthew Heiberger and Alton Davis II are switching out in the closing role. The group seemed to be a dominant force in Alabama’s success, earning four shutouts in the team’s first ten games of the season, but have had shaky outings down the stretch. In recent games, the team has used five to six pitchers per game. On top of that, Moza is still trying to find his fit, working in both a starting role and out of the bullpen.
Can Adjust to Adversity
So far in this season, the Crimson Tide has dealt with multiple circumstances they’ve had to adjust to, including injuries, weather, and battling back from behind. The first with Quick’s season-ending Tommy John surgery. The second has been weather issues. Due to inclement weather on Friday, Alabama played all three games against Lipscomb in 26 hours, a doubleheader on Saturday, and an early afternoon game Sunday. Although not at full strength, the Crimson Tide still found a way to sweep. The team has also shown that it can battle back from behind, a skill that previous Alabama baseball teams lacked. This year, Alabama has come back after being down 4-0 against UAB and Arizona, 6-1 against Lipscomb, and had a back-and-forth offensive battle with Troy.
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