2 weeks Ago
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— A hard-luck first inning for starting pitcher Tyler Fay did not snowball into more damage for the Alabama baseball team against Missouri on Thursday night. Designated hitter Coleman Mizell's eighth-inning home run paved the way for a 7-5 Crimson Tide win.
"It was a heck of a comeback win there," Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn said. "They hit around the order in the first on 16 pitches. I don't think I've ever seen that before.
.. I thought Tyler did just a great job settling in, pitching into the sixth.
" Fay went 5.1 innings and was more than economical in the first game of a must-win home series: he entered the sixth inning with 55 pitches. Alabama scored two runs in the second inning with a Will Hodo home run, but left the bases juiced in the third before a Garrett Staton home run tied things up in the sixth.
Missouri (13-28, 0-19 SEC) had one of its best opportunities to get its maiden SEC victory of the 2025 season, unable to close the deal after not scoring a single run after the first inning. The top of the first consisted of two infield singles, a hit batsman, a sac bunt and a sac fly. There was not an abundance of hard contact.
Hodo and Staton have played good baseball this week. The former hit a home run in Tuesday's road win at Samford . Without the two veteran infielders, the No.
18 Crimson Tide (33-10, 10-9 SEC) might have laid an egg in a must-win game. "Doe's is kind of completely correlated with his aggression at the plate," Vaughn said. "The swing is always money.
His eyes really work...
[Staton] missed a month, and wasn't thrust into nonconference play. Was thrust into SEC play, and every arm we see is 94-plus with stuff. He looks like he hasn't missed a beat.
" The top of the eighth was a trouble spot for Alabama. Hagan Banks let the first two Tiger hitters on, giving way to closer Carson Ozmer. Ozmer faced two batters with the bases loaded.
The first hit into a fielder's choice; Hodo came home with it to record the second out of the inning. The second struck out swinging. Ozmer went on to finish the game, earning the win with a four-strikeout day.
"In the eighth, we did exactly what we didn't do well in the first. We executed," Vaughn said. "Really happy for this dude right here [Mizell].
" Mizell has not had as much playing time recently as he did earlier this season. He downplayed that, instead citing his desire to do whatever was necessary to get wins for the Crimson Tide. He batted ninth Thursday and collected a pair of hits.
His home run came with two outs off PJ Green, the game's losing pitcher. Mizell reflected postgame about the impact of carrying oneself well as a person. His two-run bomb put the bow on a win which at one time appeared destined to be one of the worst losses of the season.
"Any way I can to help this team win," Mizell said. "Our team doctor, Jeff Laubenthal, he came up and talked to me one day in the dugout. He said 'One of the things that I love about you is it doesn't matter if you're hitting in the three-hole, or you had 20 at-bats your freshman year.
"'You show up and you treat people the right way.' It stuck with me and is something that I live by ever since then. At the end of the day, April 24, in five years, no one's gonna remember this.
But people will remember how you treat people, which is a really, really big thing in order to not complete you as a player, but as a person." The Tigers had no extra-base hits despite scoring five runs. Third baseman Chris Patterson and left fielder Brady Picarelli were the lone visitors in the multi-hit club.
Alabama had 10 hits as a team and scored all its runs with the long ball. The Crimson Tide will go for the series win at 6 p.m.
CT on Friday. See Also:.
