Alabama Baseball Wins Last Non-Conference Weekend Series Over Lipscomb

After the Bisons evened the series at one game apiece on Saturday, the Crimson Tide came back with a vengeance

Alabama Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama baseball closed out its last non-conference weekend series with a win over Lipscomb on Sunday afternoon, 14-2.

A big fourth inning saw the Crimson Tide score eight runs, ultimately leading to the demise of the Bisons.

"Obviously a really good day for us," Alabama coach Brad Bohannon said. "Very proud of the way our guys responded to a tough game yesterday. Lipscomb certainly helped us some today and to our guys' credit they did a great job of taking advantage of their mistakes.

"Just really glad to win the series against a good team."

Alabama clinches the 2-1 series victory over Lipscomb with Sunday's win.

Senior third baseman Brett Auerbach had a solid day at the plate, going 3-for-5 with two runs and four RBIs.

Auerbach's performance came off of a slow day on Saturday where the senior only went 1-for-5 with a single.

"I don't think you can quantify how valuable Brett Auerbach is for us," Bohannon said. "As of a few days ago he was actually leading us in extra-base hits, he was leading us in stolen bases. Obviously he's extremely versatile.

"He's smart, he's tough, he's well above average in all the intangible areas so I just can't say enough about Brett and what he means for our team."

In the bottom of the second with the bases loaded, Auerbach doubled down the left field line, clearing the bases and putting the Crimson Tide up 3-0.

Junior third baseman John Shields batted in the first run of the day for the Bisons in the top of the fourth, doubling to right field and scoring junior center fielder Maddux Houghton.

In the bottom of the fourth, Auerbach was walked with the bases loaded, bringing freshman second baseman Jim Jarvis home. Alabama added eight more runs with Lipscomb trying to find consistency in its pitching. The Bisons brought in two relievers, but were unable to get anything going on the mound.

In the bottom of the fifth, redshirt-sophomore catcher Sam Praytor reached first on a fielder's choice. Auerbach was able to make it home from third, scoring his final run of the day.

Lipscomb added one more run in the top of the seventh with an RBI-single by senior shortstop Brian Moore.

To put an exclamation point on the day, freshman designated hitter Owen Diodati sent a ball flying over the right field wall for a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh.

Unable to find consistency on offense and with a clearly exhausted bullpen from the past weekend, the Bisons succumbed to the Crimson Tide, 14-2.

On the mound, freshman left-hander Antoine Jean (3-0) gets the win for Alabama. Jean went five innings, allowed only one run off of four hits, struck out six and walked none.

"I think I'm fired up every game I pitch because I love to do it," Jean said. "Of course that series was on the line it was big for me to get my ball and do my best today."

Junior righty Dylan Bierman (2-1) gets the loss for Lipscomb. In three innings pitched, Bierman allowed six runs off of five hits, walked five and struck out one.

The Crimson Tide moves to 15-1 overall. The Bisons drops to 9-5.

"It was a tough loss last night," Jean said. "Of course we want to win every game, but like coach [Bohannon] said we had the same energy from the beginning of the year today or yesterday. Like, we try to play our best every game and try to win all the time so I just think we had the same energy as last night we just — the game went our way today and we played better."

Alabama now travels to Birmingham to take on UAB on Tuesday (6 p.m. CT) before hosting Missouri in its first SEC series of the season on Friday (6 p.m. CT, SEC Network+).