Alabama baseball lost 8-4 to Washington State on Opening Day at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, ending a run of 19 straight Opening Weekend wins that began in 2019. The defeat also broke an 11-game Opening Day winning streak, with the last loss in such a game occurring in 2014.
Justin Lebron began his junior season by hitting a two-run home run to right field in the ninth inning. He finished the game going 1-for-3 and drew two walks over five plate appearances. Bryce Fowler led Alabama with two singles, while Peyton Steele recorded the team’s first RBI of the season with a double in the second inning. Jason Torres added another run for Alabama after drawing a bases-loaded walk in the fifth.
Tyler Fay started for Alabama but allowed five earned runs on five hits over 3.2 innings, though he set a new personal best with seven strikeouts. JT Blackwood and Austin Morris each gave up one earned run during their relief stints. Sam Mitchell pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, retiring six of seven batters faced and striking out two.
Head Coach Rob Vaughn addressed the loss: “Obviously not the way you want to start things out, but I said it from the jump, I think we’re going to learn a lot about this team after our first loss, but I didn’t want that to be night one. It’s not how we want to start. We had an awesome, awesome crowd there. Man, the students showed up, we just didn’t get it done tonight. Credit to Washington State, they played their butts off, played hard, executed pitches, and they did a good job tonight. But we’ll show up tomorrow and see how tough this group is. They’re ready. They’re prepared. They need to just make sure they show up in themselves. And I like our chances.”
The scoring began when Max Hartman hit a two-run single for Washington State in the first inning. In response during the bottom of the second inning, Peyton Steele’s double brought home Justin Osterhouse for Alabama’s opening run of 2026.
Washington State continued its offense throughout subsequent innings with key contributions from Hartman—who drove in multiple runs including via home run—and Ryan Skjonsby who homered as well.
In addition to Lebron’s late homerun extending his hitting streak to ten games dating back to May 11, 2025, John Lemm reached base twice via walks on Friday and extended his on-base streak—which started March 22, 2025 at Southern Illinois—to 36 games.
Attendance was recorded at 4,888 fans.
Alabama will continue its three-game series against Washington State on Saturday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium; first pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m., airing on SEC Network+.
