Tyler Fay's 'Workman-Like Outing' Sets Tone For Alabama's Dominant Day on the Mound

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — How does one respond after throwing a no-hitter?

Between the physical struggle of recovering from the high pitch count and the mental aspect, there were plenty of reasons to expect an underwhelming performance from Tyler Fay coming off of last week's historic performance against Florida.

Instead, he put together his second-best start of the season, allowing just one hit over five innings. He set the tone for a dominant team performance on the bump, as Alabama held Auburn to just three hits in an 11-1 run-rule victory.

"It's what Friday guys do," head coach Rob Vaughn said. "Fay just approached this game like every other start. He had a great week and felt really good. And you're worried about it after an extended pitch count, how's the arm gonna feel, how you are you going to feel? But he said he felt awesome on Wednesday, which was great news, and I just thought it was the best version of him."

Auburn jumped out to an early lead as Fay walked leadoff batter Bristol Carter, who came around to score on a two-out Eric Guevara double. That would be the only hit or run that Fay allowed, as he followed up that first with four scoreless innings. Going back to the no-hitter, he's now allowed one hit and one run over the past 14 innings after a shaky outing against Kentucky to start SEC play. The biggest change has come in his emphasis on avoiding high misses.

"When his misses are down, we're going to be in good shape," Vaughn said. When his misses are up, that's when he gets in trouble. At Kentucky, his misses were up, and a good team goes and gets after him... When you're at the bottom of the zone, there's not a lot you can do with it. If you move, you're going to hit it straight in the ground; if you take it, it's a strike."

Fay did get into some lengthy at-bats, running up his pitch count early. With the 132 pitches he threw last week, the team wanted to keep him below 90, which is why the former walk-on did not go back out for the sixth inning.

"It was a workman-like outing for him," Vaughn said. "I told him, 'Man, we gave you this week, it's time to go saddle up and go give us 105 pitches and go get after it next week.' So he'll be ready to go."

Matthew Heiberger came out for the sixth and allowed one hit over two scoreless innings. After walking the first batter of the eighth he was pulled, a move made to preserve him for another appearance later in the weekend.

"Plain and simple, he's going to have to get some big outs for us, whether it's tomorrow or Sunday," Vaughn said. "If he starts getting around that 40 pitch mark, you might lose him for the weekend. So we kind of made the move to make sure we can bring him back."

Sam Mitchell took over, allowing a fielder's choice and a single to start his appearance. Auburn was set up with a runner in scoring position, a rarity in this game. Mitchell was unfazed, striking out the next two batters to end the frame.

Mitchell was coming off a high-leverage outing last Sunday, where he entered the game with the bases loaded in the first following Myles Upchurch's implosion and pitched 2.2 scoreless innings against Florida to set Alabama up for the sweep.

"Sam has been nails in that spot," Vaughn said. "Came in and executed and did a tremendous job there."

Alabama's bats were alive and well throughout the game, and scored three runs in the eighth to run-rule the Tigers, meaning that Mitchell did not have to pitch a second inning. He and Heiberger will both likely make another appearance this weekend, and having a completely fresh Hagan Banks and Ashton Crowther could prove vital as Alabama looks to win the series over the next two days.

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