Justin Lebron Exits as Alabama Drops Game it ‘Didn’t Deserve To Win’ to Kentucky

Alabama was in good shape entering the bottom of the fourth against Kentucky, leading 4-1 and appearing primed for its first SEC win of the season, despite star shortstop Justin Lebron exiting the game with an ankle injury. The Crimson Tide would then go on to implode, giving up seven runs over two error-laden defensive frames while proving unable to bring runners home in an 8-7 loss that gives the Wildcats the series win.

“We didn’t deserve to win,” head coach Rob Vaughn said. “That’s about as sloppy a defensive game as I’ve been a part of… at the end of the day, it’s basic stuff we do all the time that we just didn’t execute at a high level.”

Alabama started fast, as Lebron reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and third, and came home on a Brady Neal sacrifice fly to get the Crimson Tide on the board with two outs in the top of the first. Jason Torres drew a walk, John Lemm doubled and Luke Vaughn was hit by a pitch to load the bases, giving Alabama an early chance to blow the game open. Captain Will Plattner, making his first weekend start in three weeks, was plunked as well to load the bases.

Starter Ben Cleaver was pulled after just 0.2 innings, as Kentucky would go on to deploy six arms in the win, none of which would go more than 3.0 innings. The Wildcats would get out of the opening frame with no further damage, and the score remained the same through the end of the second thanks to two perfect innings from Zane Adams.

In the top of that second inning, Lebron rolled his ankle on second base after a flyout. He played the bottom of the inning at short before exiting in what appeared to be a precautionary measure.

“We’ll know a lot more tomorrow,” Vaughn said. “They taped them up. Routine fly ball and he just stepped on second base… just couldn’t go back out there (for the third). So we’ll see where we’re at tomorrow, but we probably won’t know anything on him until close to the game time tomorrow.”

Justin Osterhouse, who was out of the lineup today, replaced Lebron, going 0-for-2 with a walk. Alabama added a run in the third off a John Lemm home run and the fourth off an error, but the offense dried up after that. After just one run through four innings, the Wildcat bats picked up, scoring four off Adams in the fifth to take a 5-4 lead.

Kentucky added three more in the seventh as Hudson Brown took Matthew Heiberger deep to right field. Two of the runs were credited to Evan Steckmesser. Alabama had its chances throughout the game, notably with the bases loaded with two outs in the sixth, but was unable to cut into the deficit at all until the top of the ninth.

Luke Vaughn drove in a run with a single through the right side, prompting a pitching change in the final frame, before nine-hole batter Brennan Holt brought in two with a single up the middle. All of a sudden, Alabama was a swing away as Bryce Fowler came up to bat with the tying run on second and the go-ahead run at first. Fowler struck out swinging to strand both of them.

“You look up, and you’ve got 12 guys left on base,” Vaughn said. “We had three or four situations where we could’ve gotten a big two-out hit and didn’t get it. When you go on the road, you’ve got to go take it from somebody, and we just weren’t able to do that.”

Alabama has struggled with many of the same things all season, as sloppy play, stranded runners and an inconsistent bullpen continue to plague the team. With a gauntlet of an SEC schedule on tap this year, an opening series sweep against a good, but far from elite, Kentucky team could prove detrimental for the direction of the season.

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