Alabama Baseball Unable to Rally Back in One-Run Saturday Defeat to Oklahoma

In a game that was tied late, the Crimson Tide gave up two runs in the ninth to fall to the Sooners.

Alabama 's Kade Snell (3) takes second base in a game against Oklahoma. / Alabama Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— There was no comeback to be found for the Alabama baseball team on Saturday. Chances were there, but after Friday's electrifying come-from-behind triumph over No. 9 Oklahoma, the No. 12 Crimson Tide fell just short of clinching the series and lost 6-5.

Head coach Rob Vaughn chalked up the difference in the game to small miscues that loomed large, like multiple textbook sacrifice bunts that turned into infield hits for the Sooners (22-4, 5-3 SEC).

"The story of the game was just all the little stuff throughout the game that came back to bite us," Vaughn said. "Stuff that we've talked about ad nauseam with this team with Oklahoma coming in. They pressure you... We just had too many of those little things [where] we just couldn't get off the field."

Oklahoma got the first three runs of the game off Crimson Tide starter Bobby Alcock, who settled in and delivered six-plus innings with four runs (though he did walk four). He only allowed one after the third inning. Oklahoma starter Cade Crossland also went six innings.

The Crimson Tide's first run came off the bat of center fielder Richie Bonomolo Jr., who got to hit out of the leadoff spot on Saturday and sent a third-inning solo home run to get the home team on the board after the Sooners scored one run in each of the first three innings.

"He's been a, really, jumpstarter there in the nine for us," Vaughn said. "I thought his at-bats were really good all day." Right fielder Bryce Fowler replaced Bonomolo as the nine-hole hitter and went three-for-four.

Alabama got another run in the fourth thanks to an RBI single from Garrett Staton, who got the nod in the designated hitter slot. Oklahoma's Jason Walk responded in the top of the seventh with an RBI single of his own, scoring Alcock's last runner against Connor Ball and sending the lead back to two.

In the home half, after the stretch, Bonomolo laid down a sacrifice bunt and got down the line fast enough to force a run-scoring throwing error. Team captain Kade Snell recorded the first of two RBI groundouts on the afternoon two batters later. Tie game.

The ninth inning was where the game-losing struggles came back to haunt the Crimson Tide. One of the aforementioned bunts which should have been an out instead saw a runner safe on first. Another bunt forced the lead runner back to the dugout, but then Braylon Myers walked the bases loaded.

A sac fly by Trey Gambill gave Oklahoma the lead back and catcher Easton Carmichael came through with a massive insurance run. Entering the bottom of the ninth, Alabama (24-4, 5-3 SEC) needed two and got the first two runners aboard. Bonomolo struck out, but then shortstop Justin Lebron worked a walk as a result of an 11-pitch at-bat.

Snell grounded out to score Coleman Mizell, putting two in scoring position for catcher Will Plattner. He went down on strikes, ending the game and evening the series. The first two contests were fairly evenly matched. On Saturday, Oklahoma had nine hits and Alabama had eight.

Vaughn was noncommittal about specifically who would start in Sunday's series finale, sans Riley Quick (who is still recovering from a blood blister that plagued him last weekend against Tennessee). The game is set for a 1 p.m. CT start.

"Whoever we throw the ball to at the beginning, just go in attack mode," Vaughn said. "We gotta attack them... We've done a good job minimizing innings. Tomorrow, the big things [are], we can't put them on for free, and when they give us outs in the short game, you've gotta take them. That's what got us today."

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