Brady Neal's Ninth-Inning Home Run Extends Alabama Winning Streak to Eight Games

Few players in the SEC have broken out the way that Brady Neal has this season.

The former LSU catcher showed flashes in his first year with the Crimson Tide, but has taken his game to an entirely new level this season as Alabama's leader in batting average, OPS, and RBI. Neal delivered another big performance on Tuesday night, hitting a go-ahead ninth-inning home run to give Alabama a 4-3 win over Jacksonville State that extended its winning streak to eight games.

Alabama and Jacksonville State played a high-level midweek game. Both teams have been playing their best baseball of the season lately, as the Gamecocks, favorites to win Conference USA, have won 19 straight weekend games.

Alabama struck first, as, after a scoreless first inning, Jason Torres hit a leadoff single through the left side to start the second, bringing up catcher John Lemm. Lemm then hit his fifth home run of the year, a blast to right-center field to put Alabama up 2-0.

The score would remain unchanged until the fifth, when Justin Osterhouse hit an RBI double to extend the lead to 3-0. The Gamecocks responded in the bottom of the inning, as Sam Richardson cut into the deficit with a solo hom run.

Jacksonville State added another run in the seventh, but the bottom of the eighth is where the game got interesting. The Gamecocks had the bases loaded with two outs as reliever Bobby Alcock was unable to find the zone. Alcock was pulled for Evan Steckmesser, who walked in the winning run and was sitting at a 2-2 count in the next at-bat.

It was there that Caleb Johnson, the runner on third, decided to try to steal home, a decision that he appeared to make himself. Steckmesser may have been caught off guard for a split second, but he quickly realized what was happening and threw home for an easy out.

That set up Neal's solo home run in the ninth, which was the only hit Alabama could muster that inning, but also the only one it needed. Steckmesser walked one batter in the bottom of the ninth, but got through the inning without further incident to earn his first win of the season.

Alabama threw seven pitchers in the game, a mix of many players who have not had to do much on weekends, but continue to show flashes.

"Their numbers may not have been called a crazy amount of times up to this point this year, but we ain't getting through 56 games without those guys getting big outs in big spots," head coach Rob Vaughn said. "The more they execute in some of the roles they are given, the more you give them bigger roles. That's kind of the nature of the game of baseball. When you can be trusted a little bit, we can start trusting you a little bit more."

The eight-game winning streak is the longest of the season for Alabama. The Crimson Tide has a very short turnaround as it immediately departs for Norman tomorrow for a road series against Oklahoma that starts on Thursday night to allow the team to have off for Easter Sunday.

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