Alabama baseball took two of three games in the Frisco College Baseball Classic over the weekend, winning the round robin style tournament.
The Crimson Tide grabbed impressive wins on Friday and Saturday with wins over Iowa and No. 19 Oregon State, but came up short on Sunday against Houston. Alabama improved its record to 9-3 on the season.
Here is a recap of the weekend.
Game One: Iowa
Behind a dominant performance on the mound from Tyler Fay and three home runs, Alabama cruised to a 12-2 victory over Iowa on Friday night.
Redshirt junior Tyler Fay recorded his second win of the season, stifling the Hawkeye bats. Fay tossed six strong innings, allowing just one earned run on five hits. While he only struck out three, he forced 10 groundball outs, keeping Iowa’s hitters from ever stringing any offense together.
Alabama’s bats came to life in the opening frame when Luke Vaughn went deep for the second time in two games, a three-run shot that gave Alabama an early lead. Vaughn would finish 1-for-5 on the night. In the third, Bryce Fowler notched his first homer of the season, part of a 1-for-4 effort where he scored three times and drove in two. The exclamation point, however, belonged to Justin Lebron. Lebron went 2-for-5 with a double and five RBIs, punctuated by a massive ninth-inning grand slam that fueled a five-run Crimson Tide outburst to close the game.
Game Two: No. 19 Oregon State
A late-inning rally by No. 19 Oregon State fell just short as Alabama moved to 9-2 on the season with an 8-7 win. The Crimson Tide’s defense proved to be the difference-maker in the ninth, as Peyton Steele delivered a spectacular assist from right field to erase the potential tying run and secure the narrow victory.
Alabama’s offense wasted no time, building a commanding 6-0 cushion within the first four frames. The third inning was the Tide's most explosive as senior Brady Neal ignited the dugout with a two-run blast, followed shortly by a Jason Torres solo shot to left field. Torres was a force all night, finishing 2-for-4 with a double and a walk in addition to his home run. The power display continued in the fourth when Eric Hines cleared the left-center wall for his first collegiate home run. Justin Lebron led the Crimson Tide offense with a team-high three hits, including an RBI double in the eighth, while Luke Vaughn and Brennan Holt each turned in 2-for-4 performances. Peyton Steele and John Lemm rounded out the scoring with an RBI apiece.
Starter Zane Adams looked untouchable early, operating on cruise control through the first four frames. However, the southpaw ran into trouble in the fifth, surrendering four runs to finish his 4.2-inning outing with seven hits and four strikeouts in a no-decision. Matthew Heiberger earned his first win by effectively neutralizing Oregon State’s mid-game rally. Heiberger provided 2.2 innings of steady relief, limiting the Beavers to just one run on two hits.
Game Three: Houston
Alabama struggled to get the bats going in the final game of the tournament, falling short to Houston 8-2.
Freshman Myles Upchurch dropped his first loss of the season in a lackluster start on the mound. Upchurch tossed 3.2 innings, allowing four hits and two runs in the loss. The Alabama bullpen didn’t have much success either, allowing four earned runs on seven hits over the final five innings.
Justin Osterhouse was the only Alabama hitter to record more than one hit, going 2-for-4 as the offense couldn’t string enough hits together to keep up with Houston. Justin Lebron kept his power surge going, belting a solo home run in the eighth, his seventh of the season.
Alabama will host Jacksonville State for a midweek matchup on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
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