Alabama Baseball Bounces Back Against Mississippi State Behind Stellar Pitching

After getting run ruled on Friday night, the Crimson Tide's pitching staff responded with a one run gem against Mississippi State.

Alabama Pitcher Riley Quick (4) pitches the ball against Mississippi State at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL on Saturday, Apr 12, 2025. Mandatory Credit: Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics / Mandatory Credit: Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Crimson Tide won 4-1 on Saturday afternoon in what was the second game of a three-game set against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

After getting run ruled in eight innings on Friday night, Alabama needed a stellar performance from starter Riley Quick (4-1, 3.42 ERA) after a string of poor starts from the team’s rotation had led to many holes for the Alabama batters to try and climb out of.

Immediately, however, the Crimson Tide found itself in a hole, as Mississippi State left fielder, Gehrig Frei, took the fourth pitch of the game over the left field wall against a 99 mph Quick fastball, which put the Bulldogs out in front for the second game in a row.

From that point on, Quick settled in almost immediately, sitting down six batters via the strikeout through three innings—including a 11-pitch second inning where he struck out the visitor side in order.

“In the first (Frei) got me, fastball away he kind of just slapped it out,” Quick said, “My mentality always is just to get the next guy, get the next three outs when that happens.”

The Alabama batters responded with multiple baserunners in each of the first three innings, and a two-out double from Richie Bonomolo Jr in the second scored a pair of runs to give the Crimson Tide its first lead of the series with a score of 2-1.

From there on, both starters would get into a multiple inning duel, keeping the two offenses at bay and pitching around base traffic. The day ended for Quick after a season high 5.1 innings pitched, and with a season-high of seven strikeouts. After giving up a leadoff home run, the hard-throwing right-hander dominated the top of the zone with upper-90s fast balls.

“Going five innings, obviously, that was fun. I had a good time out there,” Quick said, “I felt normal again so that was good.”

The Mississippi State pitching staff also caught a grove, with a strong start from right-hander, Evan Siary (0-0, 3.79 ERA) throwing four strong innings and getting out of multiple jams early with little damage, and the Bulldogs bullpen combining to retire Alabama batters in order in the fourth, fifth and sixth inning.

A double from Brady Neal to lead off the seventh broke the baserunner drought for the Crimson Tide, and an ensuing bunt-single and sacrifice fly finally moved the score after four straight scoreless innings. A two-out single from Torres brought in a second insurance run to make it a 4-1 Alabama lead.

The Crimson Tide bullpen would follow up Quick with four scoreless innings, giving up just six baserunners in the process. Two double plays to end the sixth and eighth turned by shortstop, Justin Lebron, also were crucial towards stopping any momentum Mississippi State could garner.

“You got a superstar standing out there at shortstop, it’s funny, you can get numb to the fact that you stop being surprised,” Vaughn said. “When you’re having a tough day offensively, you can still change the game with how you defend, and (Lebron) tends to do both of them pretty well.”

The Bulldogs were able to get the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth with one out, but closer, Carson Ozmer, was able to work around it and draw a groundout followed by a flyout to end the threat and end the game.

“The story of the game was the way we threw the baseball,” Vaughn said, “We had some good at bats, even just some loud outs again, but we did enough offensively with the way those guys threw the baseball today.”

The win moved the Crimson Tide to 29-7 on the season and 8-6 in conference play. The two teams will be back in Sewell-Thomas Stadium tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. CT for a rubber-match of the three game set after Alabama evened the series at one game a piece on Saturday afternoon.