Alabama baseball opened its weekend series against Rhode Island with a 19-4 victory at Sewell-Thomas Stadium on Friday. The game concluded after seven innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.
The Crimson Tide’s offense produced 15 hits, including four home runs and three doubles. Justin Lebron led the team, going 3-for-4 with two home runs, five RBI, and three runs scored. Brady Neal finished a perfect 3-for-3, hitting a double and a home run while driving in one run and scoring three times. Justin Osterhouse recorded his first hit for Alabama with a two-run homer during an eight-run second inning and added an RBI single later in the game.
Brennan Holt contributed two hits, including a double, and drove in two runs from the ninth spot in the lineup. Jason Torres had a three-run double as part of Alabama’s early scoring surge. Peyton Steele collected two singles, while Bryce Fowler tallied an RBI single, walked once, was hit by a pitch, and stole a base. Andrew Purdy also delivered an RBI single.
On the mound, Tyler Fay earned his first win of the season by pitching five innings with three hits allowed and five strikeouts. Connor Lehman struck out three batters in his lone inning of work during his first appearance of 2026. Owen Sarna made his debut for Alabama in the seventh inning.
Head coach Rob Vaughn commented on the team’s performance: “Obviously a good night, right? We’ve been waiting for that for what feels like three weeks, even though it’s only been about seven days. But just a good night all around, just a good baseball game. (Tyler) Fay was electric in the first and just really efficient. Sometimes it can be hard to pitch in those games. Pitchers love run support, but every half-inning he’s sitting there for a half hour and I know that sounds silly, but that can be a challenge. (Fay) did a great job staying locked in, making pitches. Just a relentless approach offensively. (Justin Lebron’s) homer in the first let everybody breathe a little bit and once he did that, it’s like ‘alright, here we go.’ And so the thing I was most proud of is they just kept coming. They didn’t stop. It was really good to see just the relentlessness of the offensive approach tonight. That’s the first game we’ve had like that. You love starting the series that way. But at two o’clock tomorrow, its zero-zero again, and none of this matters. Can we keep that same edge? It’s easy to have that edge coming off of what we would consider a tougher game on Wednesday, but when you do have success, learning to handle that success and still show off the same edge.”
Alabama set new season highs for runs scored (19), hits (15), doubles (3), home runs (4), and total bases (30). The team’s 19 runs were their highest since scoring 20 against Jacksonville State on February 25 last year.
Justin Lebron achieved his fourth career multi-homer game; it was his first since last season against Jacksonville State on February 25th when he also hit two home runs.
Osterhouse became only the second Alabama player this season whose first hit resulted in a home run.
Jason Torres matched his highest RBI total since recording five against Bradley last year.
Connor Lehman set a new personal best with three strikeouts during Friday’s contest.
Attendance at Sewell-Thomas Stadium was reported as 4,598 spectators.
The series continues Saturday afternoon at Sewell-Thomas Stadium with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m., airing on SEC Network+.
