Live Blog From Alabama Baseball's Road Opener Against Samford

HOMEWOOD, Ala.— Alabama baseball heads to Joe Lee Griffin Field for its first midweek action of the 2026 season. The Crimson Tide enters its Tuesday matchup against Samford at 2-1 following a series win over Washington State. Samford is also 2-1 to start the year, following a series win over Belmont last weekend. Follow along for live updates and analysis:

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B7

Jason Jackson comes out to speak with Morris.

Trey Higgings hits a grounder up the middle just past the outstretched glove of Lebron. It's a single that brings Boykin home. Samford 2, Alabama 0

Morris throws another wild pitch. Boykin takes second base.

Luke Boykin notches a base hit to left field to bring Harris home. Samford 1, Alabama 0

Neal has had to save two straight near-wild pitches from Morris.

Morris strikes out Carr, getting him swinging for the first out. All Samford needs is a ball to the outfield to take a lead.

Morris throws a wild pitch, bringing Harris to third. The count is 2-2 for Carr.

Harris steals second, beating Neal's throw by a mile.

Harris lays down a very good bunt to get to first. Torres ran it down, fielding it barehanded and delivering an on-target throw, but it was late.

A very good midweek outing for JT Blackwood is over as Austin Morris takes the mound

Blackwood's line: 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 2 BB, 2 K

No official pitch count, but I'd estimate it just shy of 70
— Theodore Fernandez (@TheoFernandez__) February 17, 2026

Austin Morris relieves JT Blackwood.

T7

Lebron gets ahead with a 2-0 count, but pops out to end the frame.

Fowler walks with two outs.

Osterhouse grounds out, and Holt flies out, ending Alabama's third time through the order.

B6 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Gandy flies out and Harris grounds out to first to end another scoreless inning.

The ESPN+ broadcast just said that Blackwood is around 60 pitches. Nobody besides the Alabama dugout has an exact number.

Blackwood gets into a 3-0 hole, but recovers, getting the batter to ground out.

T6 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Steele strikes out looking. Samford has pitched four guys in the past three innings, and Alabama cannot score on any of them.

Neal and Plattner flew out to deep center and right field, respectively.

B5 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Extremely fast inning for Blackwood. He gave up a single, but a double play took it off the board. Pitches are not being tracked on the statsheet today, so not sure how many he has thrown, but it feels like he is moving fast. Just three combined hits through five innings in this one.

T5 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Luke Vaughn flies out with the bases loaded. Alabama has stranded three in each of the last two innings pic.twitter.com/5oD5q35y3Z
— Theodore Fernandez (@TheoFernandez__) February 17, 2026

Torres walks, loading the bases, but Vaughn flies out to end the frame.

Justin Lebron gets plunked on the first pitch of his at-bat for the second straight time. He turns down the base and is instead walked on four pitches. He then proceeded to immediately steal second pic.twitter.com/Y9HliUgRGZ
— Theodore Fernandez (@TheoFernandez__) February 17, 2026

Lebron is plunked once again. He turns down the base, but is walked on four pitches. Osterhouse steals third during the at-bat.

Fowler strikes out swinging.

Holt hits into a fielder's choice. Osterhouse is now in scoring position at second base.

Osterhouse draws his second walk in two at-bats.

B4 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Torres makes a nice play at third, snagging a low drive hit hard to him to end the inning. Each team has just one hit through four innings.

Carr flies out right to Steele for the second out in as many pitches.

Luke Vaughn runs a pop up down in foul territory for the first out.

B4 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Steele rips a line drive right to third baseman Parker McDonald. McDonald showed impressive reaction speed, dropping to a knee to make the catch and keep any runs off the board.

Plattner draws a full-count walk. The bases are now loaded for Peyton Steele with two-outs.

Neal gets plunked as well. The ump issues pitcher Joseph Lee a warning, but it doesn't matter as he is pulled. Trey Sanders takes over in relief.

Vaughn draws a two-out walk to keep the frame alive.

Torres grounds right to short, and Samford turns the double-play.

Lebron is plunked hard on the first pitch of the inning. He's the second Alabama batter to be hit by a pitch this season.

B3 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Harris hits a hard line drive to second. Lebron snags it from out of nowhere and rifles a throw to first for the inning-ending double-play. He's already got two defensive highlight plays in three innings.

Blackwood records a quick groundout to start the frame. Gandy then lays down a hard grounder along the third base line that is fair by no more than three inches. Torres fields it and delivers a solid throw to first that is just a second late and Gandy beats it.

T3 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Fowler grounds out on the first pitch o

Holt strikes out swinging. Osterhouse goes for second on the pitch, where he is initially called safe before being ruled out seconds later. Rob Vaughn heads out to speak with the ump. It looks like Osterhouse may have come off the bag on his slide into second.

Osterhouse walks, Alabama's second baserunner of the game. The Purdue Fort-Wayne transfer is still looking for his first hit of the season.

B2 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Blackwood walks another batter, but that is it for Samford's bats, as a flyout and a groundout end the inning. Lebron made a nice play at short to record the third out for Alabama

Justin Osterhouse does a nice job of tracking down a fly ball to left field for the first out.

T2 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Peyton Steele goes down swinging to end a 1-2-3 inning for the Bulldogs.

Brady Neal and Will Plattner both ground out on the first pitch of the at-bat. Sixth in the order is the highest that Plattner, Alabama's captain, has hit this year. He is the DH today while Neal handles duties behind the plate.

B1 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Blackwood notches a second strikeout to end the inning, getting Cade Carr swinging.

Blackwood allows his first baserunner with two outs, walking right fielder Jake Souders.

Blackwood cuts down leadoff batter Gus Gandy. He then has the sprint over to cover first for the second out, as Jackson Harris grounds out to the gap between first and second.

T1 — Alabama 0, Samford 0

Luke Vaughn strikes out swinging to end the frame, stranding Torres.

Jason Torres notches a base hit for the Crimson Tide to keep the frame alive, continuing his hot start to the season.

Bryce Fowler fouled out to start the game. Justin Lebron then hit a bomb deep to center field that looked like it was gone. The ball died at the warning track for the second out.

Pregame:

JT Blackwood is making the start for Alabama. It's Blackwood's second appearance of the season, as he pitched 1.1 innings in Friday's season opener. Blackwood gave up three hits and allowed two runs. Only one of them was earned as he was hurt by a defensive error. He is one of the more anticipated bullpen arms on the team this season.

The game is being broadcast on ESPN+, with radio coverage on Tide 100.9 with Roger Hoover on the call. It is a beautiful day for baseball at 65 degrees and sunny as of 4 p.m. CT.

I’ve made it to Joe Lee Griffin Field. Alabama and Samford are less than 40 minutes from first pitch. I’ll have live updates here and on the @BamaCentral live blog throughout the game pic.twitter.com/T0bK9Pb729
— Theodore Fernandez (@TheoFernandez__) February 17, 2026

Lineups for Alabama vs. Samford: