The 13th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide took a bad loss to the Birmingham Blazers on Tuesday night at Sewell-Thomas Field. The Blazers scored seven times in the top of the 1st and coasted to an 11-2 victory. The teams played last Tuesday at Regions Park in Birmingham with the Tide winning that contest 12-6. With the loss Alabama is 28-14 while the Blazers improved to 26-15. Casey Dunn’s squad is much improved this year and carries an RPI of 33. Alabama entered the game 4th in the nation in RPI. Bama did not help themselves by committing five errors. The Tide is now 60-29 all-time in matchups with the Blazers, including 32-13 in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama
Alabama basketball aiming to find consistency ahead of SEC play
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball wrapped up non-conference play with a 105-82 win over South Dakota State on Sunday. The Crimson Tide (11-2) has won its last five games and will now turn its attention to the best league in college basketball — the Southeastern Conference.
The Tide has had plenty of ups and downs throughout its non-conference run. It went 5-2 in seven straight games against high-major sides, including impressive wins over North Carolina and Illinois and earned gritty wins over Houston and Rutgers. However, Alabama has also struggled in losses to Purdue and Oregon as well as a unique road environment at North Dakota.
Overall, Alabama tested itself against the No. 14 best schedule according to KenPom.com. When assessing the Tide’s non-conference performance, coach Nate Oats highlighted the importance of facing good teams in non-conference play as well as a theme of improved consistency that he wants to see going forward.
“I think there’s a lot we need to be better at, there’s a lot we need to clean up to be competing for a championship in this league,” Oats said after the South Dakota State game. “But I do think we tested ourselves against some of the better teams in the country. We’ve done pretty well at times. We know when we’re playing our best we can play with anybody in the country, we just haven’t been consistent over 40 minutes.”
Oats has been particularly surprised at Alabama’s lack of consistency shooting the basketball. Despite the occasional strong shooting stretch, Alabama is still making just 31.2% of its shots from beyond the arc this season. The Tide has dealt with injuries to some of its best shooters, including Latrell Wrightsell Jr., Houston Mallette and Chris Youngblood, but Oats is still expecting improvement in the scoring department no matter if Alabama’s 3-point accuracy improves.
“Between those guys we expect to have a little bit better shooting team,” Oats said. “We’ve got to find out different ways to score the basketball when we’re not shooting. Today, we made 18 threes, but we shot 34.5% percent, so it’s not like we shot it great today. Little disappointing with how we’re shooting it from three but we’re gonna have to figure out other ways to score the basketball.”
Oats also wants to see the Tide become more consistent on the offensive glass along with creating and limiting turnovers. The Tide gained some momentum in that department Sunday with a season-low of six turnovers against South Dakota State while converting 14 Jackrabbits giveaways into 24 points.
Though there is still room for improvement as a whole, Oats highlighted a few pleasant surprises this season. The biggest of which has been the play of freshman guard Labaron Philon. The hype for the four-star recruit first began over the summer and he has become a mainstay in the starting lineup and is averaging 11.7 points, 3.7 and 3.8 assists this season. Derrion Reid has also had a strong start to his first season of college basketball. Though he missed the South Dakota State game with an injury, Reid is averaging 7.5 points and 3.7 rebounds and has looked particularly strong in extended minutes through the Tide’s last four games.
As Alabama heads into SEC play, Oats is confident that the Tide’s non-conference schedule prepared his team to contend in the best conference in college basketball. Alabama has been far from perfect on both ends, but games against different types of systems and schemes have helped foster growth and given Alabama different looks to get it ready for the strong opponents and environments it will face in the SEC.
“We’ve learned a lot,” Oats said. “Going down to Purdue and playing a tough road game, even North Dakota, they were a tough road game. Got to get our lead player package together, we got exposed on that a little up there. We’ve seen lots of different styles, our post defense got exposed a little bit, particularly starting with the Purdue game. We’ve got to be a little bit better with that and have different options with that. Different things we got exposed on that we’ve got to work on, we’ve just got to keep working on it”
Alabama will face undefeated Oklahoma to tip off SEC play. The Sooners (13-0) have been one of the biggest surprises across college basketball so far and are one of three remaining unbeaten SEC sides. Oats acknowledged the strength of the conference as a whole and went back to the theme of consistency that Alabama will have to find in order to be successful during conference play this season.
“I think hopefully our guys, with the level of these teams in the SEC, they’ll be better at staying locked in and focused for 40 minutes,” Oats said. “We got Oklahoma who’s far exceeded everyone’s expectations so far in the year coming in to start the thing out. This is not gonna be an easy game, they’re talent level is good, they’ve good a really good coach. [Porter Moser’s] taken Loyola [Chicago] to the Final Four and been really good. They’re well coached with talent that plays hard, they’re gonna be tough to beat. If we’re gonna have any kind of chance to win the SEC you’ve got to take care of your home floor, so we’ve got a home game to start and we’ll have to be ready to roll against Oklahoma in six days.”
The Tide and Sooners will square off at 5 p.m. CT Saturday inside Coleman Coliseum. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.
Freshman left hander Luke Smyers started on the mound for Bama and had a short lived appearance. Lead off man Kevin Hall tried to bunt and popped out to Alabama first baseman Luke Vaughn. That was the only batter retired by Smyers. JP Head followed with a walk and Smyers hit Landon Beaver and Max Price to load the bases. Brady Waugh looped a soft single into short left field to score a run. Andrew Hunt singled up the middle to score another and when Bama centerfielder Bryce Fowler fumbled the ball for an error, another run scored. Wesley Helms singled to chase Smyers in favor of JT Blackwood. Alex DuPay greeted Blackwood with a two run single. Two more runs came in on an error by Bama third baseman Jason Torres on a bunt by Baylor Roberts. By the time the dust settled and the inning ended, the Tide had put themselves in a 7-0 hole.
The Tide went down in order in the bottom half of the first against starter Isaac Warrick. Blackwood allowed two singled to begin the top of the 2nd, but a strikeout and double play held the deficit to seven. Eric Hines was hit by a pitch leading off in the bottom half but a pop out and two strikeouts kept Bama at bay. Blackwood had a perfect third with a ground out, fly out, and pop out. Alabama finally had a scoring opportunity in the in the bottom of the third, but could not capitalize.
Torres led off with a walk but was foreced out at second on a ground ball by Fowler. Justin LeBron shot a single to the right side to move Fowler to third base. LeBron then swiped second base for his 33rd stolen base of the year in 33 chances. Brady Neal walked to load the bases with two outs for Hines. Hines struck out to end the uprising. Blackwood walked Roberts to led off the top of the 4th, followed by a single by Hall. Head singled to right to drive in one run, and when Neal fumbled the ball in right, another run followed. Connor Lehman replaced Blackwood and walked the first two batters he faced to load the bases. A strikeout and a double play prevented further damage, but the score was now 9-0.
In the bottom of the 4th Bama got their second hit of the game with one out when Hall couldn’t find a pop up by Vaughn that fell in for a double. A strikeout and ground out ended the inning. Owen Sarna replaced Lehman and had a quick top of the 5th with a ground out and two strikeouts. Bama went down easily in the bottom half of the fifth. Sarna was back in the 6th and despite a walk and a single kept the Blazers from adding to their lead. Alabama final broke through in the bottom of the frame. Neal led off with a single and was forced out at second on a ground ball hit by Hines, Tide catcher Johnny Lemm crushed a 408 foot home run into the visitors bullpen to cut the lead to 9-2. A strikeout and a long fly out by Will Plattner ended the inning.
Austin Morris replaced Sarna in the top of the seventh. Hunt singled to lead off the inning and a one out double by Dupuy scored Hunt. DuPay reached third when Neal misplayed the ball in right field. Roberts put down a perfect squeeze bunt to score DuPay. Hall struck out to end the inning with the 11-2 score. The Tide went down in order in the bottom of the inning. Joe Chiardo tossed the 8th for Bama and had a perfect inning with a fly out, ground out, and strikeout.
The Tide went down in order in the 8th and Zach Kittrell made his season debut on the mound for Bama in the ninth. Kittrell walked Waugh to lead off the inning. Waugh was cut down trying to steal (in a 11-2 game in the ninth?) by Lemm. The runner was initially called safe but the call was overturned upon review. Kittrell retired the next two on a strikeout and fly ball to left field that Hines made a sliding catch on. Plattner singled with two outs in the 9th for Bama, but a strikeout of Evan Taylor ended the game with the Tide on the short end of the 11-2 score.
Alabama’s offensive woes continued with a 5-32 night at the plate with two walks, one hit batter, one double, one home run, a stolen base, nine strikeouts, and left six on base. The five hits were divided among five players. Smyers fell to o-1 with the loss.
Birmingham hit 11-33 in the game with six walks, two hit batters, one double, one stolen base, nine strikeouts, and left five men on base. Head, Beaver, Hunt, and Dupay all had two hits apiece. Riley Miller was the winning pitcher and is 3-0 on the season. Warrick left the game in the third inning with what appeared to be a shoulder injury.
No sugar coating this one. Just a stinker all the way around. The loss gave the Tide a 2-6 record in their last eight games. There were a couple of bright spots. Lemm hit a much needed home run after struggling the last 8-10 games. Sarna was impressive in his two innings, Chiardo was sharp in his inning, and Kittrell showed some velocity with his 94 mile an hour fastball. LeBron now has a 10 game hitting streak and is still yet to be caught stealing. Bama now has only 20 hits in their last four games with seven runs scored.
Next up is a road trip to Knoxville to take on the struggling Tennessee Volunteers in a Thursday- Saturday series.
Roll Tide
Alabama has become the latest state to enact a comprehensive consumer privacy regime, adding further complexity to an already fragmented U.S. regulatory landscape and raising new compliance imperatives for businesses operating across state lines.
Welcome to BamaCentral’s “Just a Minute,” a video series featuring Alabama Crimson Tide on SI’s beat writers. Multiple times per week, the writers will group up or film solo to provide their take on a topic concerning the Crimson Tide or the landscape of college sports.
Watch the above video as BamaCentral baseball beat reporter Theodore Fernandez reflects on the first two months of Alabama baseball’s season and explains why the team has left much to be desired despite success on the field.
At face value, this has been a successful campaign for Alabama baseball. Entering the final four weeks of the regular season, a Crimson Tide team that was projected to finish No. 13 in the SEC is 9-9 in conference play, and just one game out of fourth place. The first sweep of Auburn in more than a decade, the Frisco Classic title, and a road series win over Oklahoma are big-time results that speak to the potential Alabama clearly possesses.
But it continues to appear increasingly likely that this team may not realize that potential.
There are issues up and down the roster. The bulk of the attention has been on Justin Lebron’s struggles. His career-high in errors and underwhelming offensive numbers have led to his draft stock beginning to fall, and it led to him even being experimentally moved out of the two-hole for a game against Arkansas.
Players like Luke Vaughn and Jason Torres have struggled, and there is still a significant amount of regular roster experimentation occurring on a week-to-week basis. Will Plattner, Justin Osterhouse, Chase Kroberger, Andrew Purdy and Peyton Steele are all among the players who have started games over the past two weekends and still appear to have undefined roles.
The biggest question remains the bullpen, as it is nearly impossible to predict what it will provide on any given day. There was a two-weekend stretch where it gave up just five earned runs over 22.1 combined innings against Auburn and Oklahoma, willing Alabama to wins in games where the bats did not show up. Then there have been the lows: implosions against Arkansas and Texas that cast serious doubt on the unit’s ability to show up in big moments.
In all of those areas where the team has struggled, there is hope of a turnaround. There are the bullpen’s aforementioned elite stretches. There are the web-gem plays in short by Lebron, that will leave him with one of the most impressive defensive highlight reels of any player in the nation. There’s Torres responding to a 1-for-12 weekend against the Razorbacks with a two-hit game where he drove in one of Alabama’s two runs to avoid a sweep against Texas last Sunday.
In a sport defined by randomness, where the thinnest of margins can mean the difference between going home in a regional or making a run to Omaha, we simply have no way of knowing where Alabama will land.
Would we really expect it any other way?
That’s baseball.
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