With Series Sweep at Ole Miss, Alabama Baseball Showed True Potential
It might have been the biggest weekend of the Brad Bohannon era of Alabama baseball.
This past weekend, the Crimson Tide swept No. 7 Ole Miss in Oxford, besting the Rebels in a road series for the first time since 2011 and sweeping them at Swayze Field for the first time since 1997. The weekend, combined with Alabama's series win over Texas A&M the prior weekend, also marked the first time since 2018 that the Crimson Tide has won back-to-back SEC series.
It's no secret that Alabama baseball has struggled to find consistency over the past several seasons. While the Crimson Tide has typically started out strong in non-conference play, the brutal gauntlet of the SEC has provided Alabama with losing conference records more often than not under Bohannon. However, the past two weekends have shown marked improvement.
Alabama headed into this weekend as the underdog to Ole Miss, but played like anything but. It's the same way that it's played the past three weekends, including the team's road trip to Mississippi State. Lest we forget, Alabama was two runs short of sweeping the Bulldogs on the road.
The Crimson Tide won its first game over the Rebels 7-4 after a dominating seven-inning outing by Friday starter Garrett McMillan. A 3-for-5 day at the plate by shortstop Jim Jarvis and a 3-RBI performance by first baseman Drew Williamson helped boost the team to its first win of the series.
On Saturday, Ole Miss bounced back with 15 hits — including six home runs — to take Alabama to extra innings. However, A grand slam in the seventh by Williamson kept the game in the Crimson Tide's control heading into the ninth. After the Rebels tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, a 10th-inning two run shot by third baseman Zane Denton ultimately gave Alabama the win.
In Sunday's finale, Ole Miss was able to hit two home runs to remain in striking distance of Alabama, but the Crimson Tide was able to hit three home runs of its own to outpace the Rebels to a 7-3 win and the series sweep. Outfielders Tommy Seidl and Andrew Pinckney both hit solo shots, while Denton hit a 2-run home run in the top of the ninth to give Alabama all the insurance it needed to win the game.
“This was another great, well-rounded performance by our club today," head coach Brad Bohannon said after the game. "Grayson Hitt gave us the best start of his career, and (Hunter) Hoopes and (Landon) Green were outstanding out of the bullpen. We are getting offensive production up and down the lineup, and we are playing with great energy. I’m really happy for our kids.”
The problems for Alabama heading into the current resurgence stemmed from two factors: lack of production up and down the lineup and poor bullpen performances. However, over the past couple of weekends, those problems seemed to have ironed out.
The Crimson Tide has shown solid starting pitching all season, a solid improvement of last year's roster. Let's remember that Alabama is also down several staff members due to injury, including standout Connor Prielipp. Despite the injuries, the weekend rotation has consistently been one of the highlights for the Crimson Tide this season.
But now that the bullpen has joined in the effort, Alabama is looking like a much more complete team. It still might not be where Bohannon would like to see it — the bullpen surrendered a total of 26 runs this weekend against the Rebels — but it's certainly a sign of progress.
In total, Alabama stuck out 34 Ole Miss batters over the three games played.
The full potential of Alabama's lineup was also on display this weekend, with the Crimson Tide amassing 33 hits over the course of the three games. Designated hitter William Hamiter's return from injury has been a key factor, with Williamson, Seidl and Jarvis all consistently being able to get on base and drive in runs. Another standout recently has been Pinckney, who batted 6-for-12 this weekend with 6 runs and an RBI.
All of this without Owen Diodati in the starting lineup over the weekend.
With the wins over Ole Miss, Alabama has now won eight of its last nine games. The wins have rocketed them forward in the conference, where the Crimson Tide now stands tied for second in the SEC Western Division with a 7-5 record.
Despite the recent success, Alabama's season is far from over. After a Tuesday home game against Belmont, the Crimson Tide will travel to Knoxville to take on the No. 1 Tennessee Volunteers in a three-game series. Tennessee is currently off to the best start in SEC history, with a 12-0 record to start the year.
After that, Alabama will host a series against Georgia before taking a trip for a series at South Carolina. After that comes weekend series vs LSU, at Auburn and against Arkansas. The Crimson Tide might be playing well now, but it will need to play at its highest level if it wants to make it through the rest of the schedule with a solid record.
But if Alabama keeps improving at the rate that it has over these past few weeks, we could be in for an interesting second half of the season.
Alabama Baseball Stats vs Ole Miss
