Tyler Fay Has Career Night In Final SEC Tune-Up

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Tyler Fay heard the noise after opening day.

Alabama had just lost to a Washington State team picked to finish eighth in the Mountain West. Fay allowed five runs and lasted just 3.2 innings in his debut as the Crimson Tide's Friday night starter.

That performance feels like ages ago, as the redshirt junior has improved in each successive start, leading to this Friday, when he struck out a career-high 11 batters over seven innings in Alabama's 7-2 win over North Florida.

"That was kind of the first game all year that I had everything working," Fay said. "The slider's been kind of hit or miss. Having that to get ahead in counts and put away people was really good. And then the changeup, four-seam, everything felt pretty good. I was just trying to fill up the zone... I was really happy with that."

Fay was in complete control of the Ospreys for just about his entire outing. He allowed four hits and walked just one batter. The only runs came on a two-run homer, and the runner on base reached after a routine grounder took an improbable bounce off second base and into the outfield.

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Gialdri Gomez took Fay to deep right field on what head coach Rob Vaughn called his worst pitch of the night. Fay was able to recover, putting down nine of the eleven batters he faced after that point and striking out six.

"That was just a pretty bad fastball that I threw that the guy hit out," Fay said. "I was kind of mad. I don't know if I kind of let up a little bit or backed off or whatever happened. After that, I kind of flipped the switch. I came in after that, and JJ (pitching coach Jason Jackson) said, 'Foot on the gas, keep going, you're not done.' That got the energy back for me, and I was able to execute a couple of pitches after the bad fastball."

Fay sat at 76 pitches after a 1-2-3 sixth inning. Vaughn made the decision to keep him in the game for the seventh as a tune-up for SEC play. Fay had never gone more than six innings in his career, and he set a new career-high with 95 total pitches.

"It's kind of been a plan all along," Vaughn said. "We wanted to keep inching him up, and getting him to those pitch counts is important. Now, winning the game will trump everything, but with the way he was going, we wanted to get him to a point where next week, if we need him to go 100, 105 pitches, that's not out of the question. He'll be ready for that."

The outing was a reminder of why Fay holds Alabama’s Friday night role. Vaughn and Jackson believe he can truly go toe-to-toe with any ace in the SEC. He'll have his work cut out for him all spring, starting next week in the conference opener against star Kentucky pitcher Jaxon