Freshmen Power Alabama Baseball to Error-Laden Midweek Win Over UAB

Alabama baseball committed six errors through the first five innings on Tuesday night in Birmingham, the program's most in a game since 2008, but the bats were hot, waking up from a disappointing outing on Sunday to power the Crimson Tide to a 12-6 win over UAB.

Justin Lebron had not homered in 14 games, dating back to March 22 against Florida. He changed that on the fourth pitch of the game, slamming a deep shot to left field to give Alabama a 1-0 lead. Lebron, who has had some very notable struggles this season, has now quietly put together a seven-game hit streak, and still leads the team with 12 home runs.

The Blazers responded the next inning with one of their two earned runs of the day, as a pair of groundouts brought designated hitter Andrew Hunt, who hit a leadoff single followed by a stolen base, home to tie the game. Alabama was then put down 1-2-3 in the top of the third.

The bottom of that inning featured the 14th error of the season from Lebron, who's previous career-high in a season was 11. The junior fielded a grounder at short as the runner on second rounded third, and missed catcher John Lemm on a throw to the plate that would have beaten him easily.

The teams continued to go back and forth in the fourth. Jason Torres laid down a nice sacrifice bunt to bring Neal home again, and then freshman Andrew Purdy, starting over Luke Vaughn at first base, hit his first career home run, a two-run blast that brought home fellow freshman Eric Hines.

The bottom of the inning featured two errors from Lemm, who has played clean baseball for the majority of the season. The first, an overthrown ball to second, had no impact, but the second, a catcher's interference, led to two unearned UAB runs. Lebron tied the game the next frame with a sac fly, but Alabama's defensive struggles were far from over.

Cleanup batter JP Head drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fifth, and then ended up on second after Evan Steckmesser sailed a ball into left field on a rundown. A wild pitch would score him, and UAB came out of the fifth with a 6-5 lead. Alabama had already committed six errors.

"This has been about as bad as you could defend a game through five innings, but at the end of the day, we're down one," head coach Rob Vaughn said of his message to the team. "So go find an excuse to win anyway."

The Crimson Tide loaded the bases in the sixth, as Hines ripped a leadoff double followed by walks from Torres and Purdy. Up to the plate came Caleb Barnett, the freshman making his first career start, just minutes away from his hometown of Mountain Brook. Barnett, who recorded his first hit on Saturday, cleared the bases with a double to left-center field that marked a turning point for Alabama.

Sam Mitchell had come into the game in the bottom of the fifth to record the final out and settled things on the mound for Alabama. Coming off a rough outing on Saturday, he allowed just one runner over 2.1 scoreless innings.

Neal, who went 4-for-5 on the day, extended Alabama's lead with an RBI single in the seventh, and Purdy capped off his career day with a three-RBI double in the ninth. The story of the game was the freshmen, as Purdy, Hines and Barnett all turned in key performances.

"You've got a real picture of the future of Alabama baseball with that group of guys there," Vaughn said. "The beauty is, they are playing at a level where they force your hands, and the future comes a lot sooner than maybe was planned on."

All three, and four if counting outfielder Chase Kroberger, have seen significantly increased roles over the past two weeks, and will likely be up for some big at-bats as Alabama heads to Austin to face Texas this weekend.

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