Alabama’s baseball team secured a 2-1 victory over Alabama State on Wednesday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, relying heavily on its pitching staff. The Crimson Tide used six pitchers in the game, holding Alabama State to just one extra-base hit.
Freshman Luke Smyers made his first collegiate start, allowing three hits and one earned run with two walks and three strikeouts. Bobby Alcock earned the win after pitching two scoreless innings in relief, giving up only one hit and striking out three. Additional relief came from Sam Mitchell, Evan Steckmesser, and Kaden Humphrey, who combined for four shutout innings with five strikeouts and three hits allowed. Matthew Heiberger closed the game in the ninth inning, retiring all three batters he faced—including two by strikeout—to earn his first save of the season.
On offense, Alabama managed only five hits. Brennan Holt led the team with a 2-for-3 performance that included a double. John Lemm extended his on-base streak to 39 games with a single in the first inning. Peyton Steele and Eric Hines also collected singles; Hines’ hit was the first of his college career. Justin Lebron went hitless but drew two walks and stole two bases, bringing his total to eight steals in as many attempts through five games.
Head coach Rob Vaughn commented after the game: “Credit to Alabama State, they played hard tonight. The pitching staff was outstanding. Sam Mitchell, just tons of sinkers at the bottom. Bobby Alcock Just kept getting better as he went. That was more of the Bobby we saw that was the SEC Pitcher of the Week down at College Station last year. Then (Kaden) Humphrey and (Matthew) Heiberger at the end. I talked to our guys, winning baseball games is hard, but there’s a standard to what it means to play at Alabama, and we didn’t live up to that tonight. Credit Alabama State. Man, they gave us all we can handle. We didn’t play the game the right way. We didn’t play hard, and we’re going to fix that, I can promise you. Today just simply was short of our standard. We’re very fortunate that we showed up on the pitching staff and attacked and competed. We’re going to have to be heck a lot tougher on the other side of the ball come Friday.”
Alabama scored both its runs following errors by Alabama State—one coming off an errant pickoff throw in third inning that allowed Justin Lebron to score after stealing second base; another run scored in fifth when Eric Hines crossed home plate following a passed ball.
With this win, Alabama improved its record against Alabama State to 12-0 all-time.
Attendance for Wednesday’s game was 3,513.
The Crimson Tide will continue their homestand with a three-game series against Rhode Island starting Friday at 4 p.m., which will be broadcast on SEC Network+.
