Pitching Implodes As Alabama Baseball Is Run-Ruled By Southern Miss

Alabama baseball's seven-game win streak was snapped on Tuesday night as the team was embarrassed in a 14-4 eight-inning loss to Southern Miss in Hattiesburg. After jumping out to an early 2-0 lead, the Crimson Tide allowed two grand slams in the first four innings as the Golden Eagles ran away with the ballgame.

"We didn't make plays," head coach Rob Vaughn said. "Just compounding mistakes, and against a good team, it's not just not making errors. You've got to make plays. And we've got to do a better job."

Bryce Fowler singled to start the game, and Justin Lebron reached on a fielding error, giving Alabama two on with nobody out in the first. Jason Torres hit a sac fly to bring Fowler home and Luke Vaughn drove in Lebron with an RBI single to put the Crimson Tide up 2-0 after the opening frame.

The lead was gone by the end of the second, as the Golden Eagles got one run back in the first before Ben Higdon hit a grand slam 400 feet to dead center off JT Blackwood to put Southern Miss ahead.

After a scoreless third, Alabama got back in the game with a two-run blast from Vaughn in the fourth. Trailing 5-4, Alabama proceeded to implode. Reliever Connor Lehman walked two batters to start the bottom of the inning before being pulled for Samford transfer Evan Steckmesser, who allowed a bunt down the third base line to load the bases and then a two-RBI single in the subsequent at-bat.

Things then went from bad to worse, as Southern Miss would load the bases with one out before second baseman Kyle Morrison hit a grand slam to blow the game open. It was the Golden Eagles' first game with two grand slams since the 2024 season, and it marked the end of Steckmesser's night. He gave up five earned runs while recording just one out, good for the worst relief appearance by a Crimson Tide pitcher this season.

Bobby Alcock would get Alabama out of the inning without any further damage, but the complexion of the game had been altered. The Crimson Tide would go hitless over the final four innings of the game, stranding six total runners in those frames. Southern Miss deployed nine pitchers over the eight-inning contest, holding Alabama to just four hits on the night.

"The game got away from us right there," Vaughn said. "They kept rolling arm after arm, and it's a lot more comfortable for them, you know, pitching in a 12-4 game versus a 5-4 game. So credit them, they kicked our tails tonight."

The game ended in the eighth when reliever Tate Robertson threw a ball over Lebron's head at second base, allowing a Golden Eagle run to come in and bring the run rule into effect at 14-4. Blackwood was the game's losing pitcher, giving up five runs over two innings of work one week after his excellent six-inning start against Samford.

Alabama has now lost seven straight games at Pete Taylor Park— with six against the Golden Eagles and the loss to Miami in last year's Hattiesburg Regional. The Crimson Tide has a big weekend on tap in Frisco, Texas with matchups against Iowa, Houston and ranked Oregon State.

"It's time for us to regroup and get back to work," Vaughn said. "It's a long season, we've just got to keep getting better."

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