Brilliant Start by Grayson Hitt Lifts Alabama Baseball Past No. 14 Georgia, 3-0

Hitt allowed no runs off of just three hits, walked two batters and struck out seven en route to his fourth win of the season.

Author:
Joey Blackwell
Publish date:
Apr 24, 2022 4:23 PM EDT

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Powered by six scoreless innings pitched by starter Grayson Hitt, Alabama baseball swiped a win on Sunday afternoon against No. 14 Georgia with a final score of 3-0.

The win snaps a five-game losing streak for Alabama and improves the Crimson Tide's overall record in the Southeastern Conference to 9-9.

"Grayson Hitt was just fabulous," Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon said. "[Brock] Guffey was really sharp in his inning and [Dylan Ray] was pretty electric to close it out and we did enough offensively.

"Georgia's a very good team — they played really well this weekend."

Hitt was the story of the game, who threw a solid start to hold back the Bulldogs bats. In six innings pitched, Hitt gave up just three hits and no runs, walked two batters and struck out seven in just 81 pitches en route to the win.

While Hitt commanded his pitches and showed a lot of confidence on the mound, he also showed a decent bit of poise and endurance. Sunday's start marked just the third time this season that Hitt has gone six or more innings and is his first performance with no runs allowed since his 2022 debut against Xavier.

After Hitt's six innings, reliever Brock Guffey took over on the mound in the top of the seventh and pitched one inning where he gave up no runs, no hits, walked none and struck out none. In the eighth, fellow reliever Dylan Ray took command, walking one batter but otherwise keeping the Bulldogs at bay.

Ray picked up right where he left off in the ninth, sealing the victory by striking out three of four batters and picking up the save.

In the bottom of the fourth, Alabama scored its first run when first baseman Drew Williamson crushed a leadoff home run into the Alabama bullpen. The next inning, right fielder Andrew Pinckney hit a two-out, two run shot into the playground in left field, increasing the Crimson Tide's lead to 3-0.

The runs were the only scored of the game thanks to the crucial start by Hitt and the solid bullpen performances by Guffey and Ray.

Hitt (4-1) was credited with the win for Alabama, while Ray (5) picked up the save. Georgia starting pitcher Liam Sullivan (3-2) — who gave up all three of the Crimson Tide's runs — was saddled with the loss.

With the win, Alabama moves to 24-17 on the season and is now 9-9 in Southeastern Conference play. Georgia falls to 28-12 with the loss and is 11-7 in the conference. Up next, the Crimson Tide will take to the road to face Samford on Tuesday before traveling to play South Carolina in a three-game series beginning on Thursday.

"Good win for us today," Bohannon said. "I told the kids before the game — I didn't use the phrase 'must-win' — but I said 'Hey man, we really need to get a win today.' We weren't going to run from it or hide from it. You can't get swept at home this deep in the season and I thought the kids responded. We played a really, really good game today."

While the win came at a good time and it's worth acknowledging, Alabama's weekend still exposed some ongoing issues that continue to cause problems for the team. While the Crimson Tide's offense has proven on multiple occasions that it can be highly productive, it's also shown that it can lose games to even the most inferior opponents when the bats are cold.

One positive for Alabama continues to be stellar pitching, which the Crimson Tide showed in droves this weekend despite dropping two of its games against the Bulldogs. Garrett McMillan, Jacob McNairy and Hitt all gave Alabama every chance it needed to succeed this weekend — with the bullpen doing a great job as well — but with the run production not there, the pitching success was drowned out by the woeful bats.

As the lineup goes, so does the Crimson Tide. Streaky has become a word that can adequately describe this team, but it doesn't have to be. This next week, Alabama plays four road games: a Tuesday visit to Samford and a three-game series at South Carolina. All four games provide plenty of opportunities for the Crimson Tide to get back on track, and it very well could do so.

However, if the hitting continues to remain as inconsistent as it has been as of late, it could be a long week for Alabama.