Alabama Baseball Fall Ball vs Auburn

The Alabama Crimson Tide baseball program began the Rob Vaughn era in style, with two victories over its bitter rival. Sure, it was fall ball, exhibition baseball, but the Tide took care of business on Friday night beating the Auburn Tigers 5-2 and 10-0 in two seven-inning matchups.

The evening was marked by excellent pitching as the Tide gave up just two runs and struck out 22 batters across the 14 innings of action. Zane Adams and Greg Farone shined the brightest with three strikeouts a piece.

"Overall, I am happy for our guys. The way they have went about their work this fall – they have been working hard, and to see some of the fruits of their labor pay off tonight was fun," Vaughn said. "This was a complete effort from start to finish, and that’s not easy to do against a team like Auburn, they have a heck of a group. That’s a good squad over there with some electricity on the mound, but I thought we did a really nice job against them tonight.”

Alabama scored five runs in the very first inning of the first game, thanks to back-to-back leadoff homers by Gage Miller and Ian Petrutz. Later in the inning centerfielder TJ McCants also went deep, with two men on, for a three-run bomb to complete the scoring in the first game.

The second game scoring was a bit more spread out across the seven innings, but Camden Hayslip stole the show with his two homerun performance. Hayslip notched six RBIs thanks to a two-run shot in the second inning and a grandslam in the fifth inning. Both homeruns were launched deep into the night and landed outside Sewell Thomas Stadium.

The Crimson Tide will be back in action on Saturday, Oct. 28 at noon with another two-game, seven-innings each exhibition against the Florida State Seminoles in Tuscaloosa.

The Alabama Crimson Tide baseball program opens its fall ball exhibition schedule on Friday against the Auburn Tigers.

The two SEC West clubs are scheduled to play a double-header on Friday night with each exhibition game going seven innings.

Admission is free for those attending the showcase in Sewell-Thomas Stadium. It will be the first live action for the Tide after hiring Rob Vaughn to take over the program in the offseason.

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The Alabama baseball program made to the NCAA Super Regional Round in 2023 for the first time since 2010 after the firing of former coach Brad Bohannon.

Tonight's the first of two scheduled exhibitions for the fall season. Alabama is hosting Florida State on Saturday, Oct. 28 at noon CT. That will also be a double-header with two seven-inning contests.

The Auburn Tigers qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2023 but didn't advance to the Super Regional Round. Head coach Butch Thompson enters his seventh season at the helm of the Tigers program.

The Crimson Tide took two-of-three games against the Tigers in 2023, winning 4-2 and 6-1 on Saturday and Sunday respectively, but losing 4-8 in the Friday matchup of their April regular season series.

It should be a beautiful evening for baseball in Tuscaloosa as the weather forecast calls for temperatures in the high 60s with only a 2% chance of rain and wind coming in southeast at just 2-4 miles per hour.