Adams Deals Again, Offense Comes Alive as Alabama Baseball Claims Series Over Ole Miss

The Alabama baseball team has its first road series win of conference play.

Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron in a game against Ole Miss in April 2024. / Alabama Athletics

The No. 23 Alabama baseball team needed a win on Saturday afternoon to clinch its first road series win of the SEC slate. Thanks to another veteran performance by southpaw pitcher Zane Adams and a 10-run day from the bats, the Crimson Tide (28-16, 9-12 SEC) won the rubber match against Ole Miss at Swayze Field 10-3.

Ole Miss trotted out right-hander Mason Nichols for the third start of his career, and he had a solid day with four innings of one-run ball before being removed from the contest after a leadoff walk in the top of the fifth. The Rebels (23-20, 7-14 SEC) won Friday night's game 9-8, and head coach Mike Bianco opted to use seven pitchers throughout the course of the series finale, a decision which did not pay the dividends he was hoping for. All told, the series could have been worse for Ole Miss, which offered hardly any life in a 12-0 loss against the Crimson Tide on Thursday.

"That was just a gutty team effort, to be honest with you," Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn said. "The story of this whole thing, man, is Zane Adams... At one point, retires 17 in a row. It's hard to imagine that kid's a freshman. His poise, his ability to not make the situation bigger than it is, and just go execute pitches, was impressive. That allowed that offense to settle in and get going."

Adams, who memorably spun an eight-inning shutout performance against Arkansas on April 14, dealt once again Saturday and remained in the game at the start of the eighth inning in Oxford. His afternoon finally came to a close following a two-run home run by Rebels leadoff man Jackson Ross, which turned an 8- score in favor of Alabama to 8-3. The freshman's final line was seven innings and three runs on six hits, a quality start.

The Rebels got on the board first in the second inning when catcher Eli Berch singled to bring home center fielder Ethan Groff. Until the eighth inning, that was the only run the home team pushed across with Adams on the bump. Third baseman Gage Miller then sent a rocket out to left field in the top of the third for his 18th home run of the season, tying the game. There would be no more runs for either side until a disastrous top of the sixth inning for Ole Miss.

Wes Mendes, who took the hill in relief of Nichols, got the first out of the frame on a flyout by Miller. He hit the next batter, left fielder Ian Petrutz, and then shortstop Justin Lebron hit a two-run home run to break the 1-1 tie. The blast was his 11th of the spring. He was anything but an easy out for the Rebels all weekend long. Things cascaded from there, as a double by Will Hodo on a ball the outfield lost in the sun turned into a run, and then the batter who sent Hodo home, Kade Snell, eventually scored on a wild pitch.

"That kind of jumpstarted everyone else," Vaughn said of Lebron's home run. He had previously noticed his team's at-bats in the early innings were uncharacteristic. "Just didn't have much going for us," he said.

After entering the sixth inning tied 1-1, Ole Miss' lineup grabbed the bats for the bottom half down by four runs. Adams sat them down in order. Catcher Mac Guscette sent a home run to left field, his fourth in the past two weekends, to lead off the seventh inning. Mendes was out of the game by that point. The Crimson Tide added the seventh and eighth runs of its tally when Guscette and second baseman Bryce Eblin each hit their way aboard and later scored in the eighth.

Closer Alton Davis II entered the contest in relief of Adams. Ole Miss did not get a run off of him. The continued pitching changes on the Rebels' side offered no answer. Ryne Rodriguez was sent in to pitch during the top of the ninth, and gave up an RBI single to former Rebel TJ McCants. McCants now has a 10-game hitting streak. Rodriguez was subsequently lifted for Connor Spencer, the seventh pitcher of the game, who gave up the final Alabama run on a Guscette single that scored McCants.

The Mississippi gauntlet is still only halfway over for the Crimson Tide. Next weekend, Alabama will travel to Starkville to take on Mississippi State. There is no midweek between Saturday's outing and that three-game set. The last time the Crimson Tide played at Dudy Noble Field was in the 2022 season. It very well could have swept the then-reigning College World Series champions, but had to settle for a series-salvaging win in the Sunday game.