'He Deserved Tonight'- Rob Vaughn Praises Sam Mitchell and Zane Probst in Relief Work Against No. 1 Arkansas

Alabama baseball head coach Rob Vaughn spoke highly of the duo after Friday night's game against the No. 1 Arkansas Razorbacks.

Alabama Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Five. 

That is the number of games that the No. 25 Alabama Crimson Tide (22-12, 4-9) baseball team has lost in a row which includes a 5-3 defeat to the No. 1 Arkansas Razorbacks (30-3, 12-1) on Friday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. 

During the slump, the Crimson Tide has seen struggles on both sides of the ball, but both put up a fight against the top-ranked team.

Junior right-handed pitcher Ben Hess started on the mound. In five innings of work, Hess allowed five hits, five runs (all earned), walked three batters, and struck out eight. He was credited with the loss.

It was a completely different story for the two pitchers, Sam Mitchell and Zane Probst, who entered the game out of the bullpen. The duo allowed one hit, walked two batters, and struck out two in four innings of work. 

Alabama baseball head coach Rob Vaughn praised both relievers for their performance on the mound.

“We had two young arms, Sam Mitchell [and] Zane Probst, that threw the ball extremely well,” said Vaughn. “Sam Mitchell’s not got a lot of outings this spring and wanted to give him an opportunity. He’s been working his tail off and came in and gave us two really good innings, kind of pitched around a mess there in the seventh but gave us a good one. Zane Probst had a tough start to the year, there’s no doubt and that dude works harder than anybody on our team. He comes in there and hangs two zeros at the end to give us a chance.”

Mitchell, a freshman from Madison, Ala., made his collegiate debut against Valparaiso in Feb., however has only made three appearances (Alabama State and Belmont) in total prior to Friday night’s game. 

Probst is a veteran arm who’s had a rollercoaster of a season so far and has not made an appearance since March 26 where he allowed one hit, three runs (one earned), and walked two batters in 0.1 innings of work against Belmont. 

“He deserved tonight,” said Vaughn. “Zane works so hard and wants it so bad that I saw him finally just go be Zane Probst tonight. He faced some live hitters on Wednesday and it opened our eyes. It was 92-93, it was some really good breaking balls, a ton of strikes, he deserves tonight, so I’m just happy for him.”