Alabama baseball secured a 9-3 win over North Florida at Sewell-Thomas Stadium on Saturday, powered by a six-run first inning. The Crimson Tide improved to 13-3 for the season, while North Florida fell to an even 8-8.
Bryce Fowler led Alabama’s offense, going 3-for-5 with a double and four runs batted in. John Lemm added two hits—a triple and a double—along with two RBI and two runs scored. Brennan Holt contributed a triple as part of his 2-for-3 day, which included a stolen base. Justin Lebron started the scoring in the opening frame with a one-out double and finished with two steals. Both Justin Osterhouse and Peyton Steele recorded one hit and one RBI each.
On the mound, Zane Adams earned his third win of the season after pitching five innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits while striking out four batters. Austin Morris entered in relief in the sixth inning but was replaced after facing four batters. Sam Mitchell helped prevent a North Florida rally by recording the final two outs of the sixth inning with the bases loaded and followed up with a scoreless seventh. Luke Smyers and Anthony Pesci each pitched an inning to close out the game, striking out two batters apiece.
Head coach Rob Vaughn commented on his team’s performance: “You know, I thought we kind of gave some at-bats away in the middle of the game. I thought we could have put that away a little bit earlier but credit the guys. They kept coming, and when they scored a run, we responded. We executed with the short game late, which is something we work on all the time. So, good to see that come into play. And then I thought Sam Mitchell was awesome. You know, Sam came into kind of a storm there when the game was still kind of in play. (Mitchell) allowed the offense to go back to score and I’m just happy with the way they finished. (Luke) Smyers was great at the end and (Pesci) was great too, so a good win, and now we have to come back and do it again tomorrow.”
North Florida opened scoring in the top of the first inning before Alabama answered back with six runs in their half of the inning following key contributions from Lebron, Lemm, Torres, Osterhouse, Steele, Holt, and Fowler.
The Ospreys narrowed Alabama’s lead to 6-2 in the fourth inning after working walks that led to an RBI single. However, Holt’s triple followed by Fowler’s RBI single increased Alabama’s advantage in their half of that frame.
North Florida managed another run in the sixth after loading the bases with one out and drawing a hit-by-pitch walk-in run before Mitchell ended their threat without further damage.
Alabama continued its offensive output in the seventh as Lemm tripled to start things off before eventually scoring on an Osterhouse sacrifice bunt; Fowler added another run later that inning.
Fowler set a new season high for RBI with four during this game while extending his on-base streak to ten games. Luke Vaughn improved his own on-base streak to thirteen games despite Brady Neal seeing his hitting streak end at six games—though he has now reached base safely in seven consecutive contests.
After not recording any triples through their first fourteen games this year, Alabama has now tallied three over its last two outings.
Attendance for Saturday’s matchup was reported at 3,573 spectators.
Alabama will seek to complete its series sweep against North Florida on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. CT; fans can watch live coverage via SEC Network+.
