Holman’s Dominant Start Leads Alabama Baseball Past Ole Miss in Game 1

The ace gave the Crimson Tide exactly what it needed — nearly seven strong innings in the opening game of the series with the Rebels.

Austin Hannon | May 18, 2023

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Coming into the weekend, Alabama baseball knows where it stands — whether or not it wants to talk about it.

The Crimson Tide (36-17, 14-14 SEC) is going to be in the NCAA tournament. The question now is — how far can Alabama push it? Can the Crimson Tide host? Potentially — if it can take care of Ole Miss in Tuscaloosa and win one or two games in Hoover for the 2023 SEC Tournament.

Alabama can check the first of three boxes this weekend as the Crimson Tide took a 4-1 Game 1 victory over the Rebels (25-27, 6-22 SEC) on Thursday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

“Great way to get the series off to a good start,” interim head coach Jason Jackson said. “We did a great job offensively of scoring early in the game. [...] Just a good overall team win.”

Rain tried yet again to diminish Alabama’s success — but it didn't work again. Thursday’s original game time of 6 p.m. CT was moved up to 4 p.m. — but the game didn’t start until 5:52 p.m.

That kind of thing can have a big impact on a starting pitcher.

Not Luke Holman.

Holman was a force for the Crimson Tide. In 6.2 innings, he allowed just a single run on four hits and four walks — striking out five.

This comes after Holman surrendered six earned runs in 4.1 innings against Texas A&M last weekend.

“I thought Luke was fantastic tonight,” Jackson said. “Did a really good job on short rest. Pitchers — we’re all big on our routines. [...] Luke handled it like a champ, did a great job, pitched deep into the ballgame again for us. That’s a really good offensive team over there. He did a good job slowing them down tonight.”

Andrew Pinckney continues to demolish the baseball — hitting another home run on Thursday night. Since April 18, Pinckney is hitting .381 with 11 home runs and 25 RBIs.

That’s dominating the plate.

“I’m just trying to take it a pitch at a time,” Pinckney said. “When I’m trying to lift the ball and hit home runs, that’s when I start struggling. Trying to keep it basic, keep it simple.”

Since Jackson took over after Brad Bohannon’s firing, Alabama is 6-2.

Things are certainly looking good for the Crimson Tide — which still has hopes of hosting an NCAA regional for the first time since 2006.

“We’re just trying to play one game at a time,” Jackson said. “We don’t — [the players] may look at it — we don’t really get too caught up in the seeding or this or that. Let’s just try to go out and be the best team we can be today and let’s respect the chance to go 1-0 today. Let’s just play one game at a time. All that other stuff sort of falls into place.”

Alabama has been sporting its camouflage hats as of late — and it’s working.

“These guys — they like it,” Jackson said. “When you get hot, when you’re playing well — you don’t mess with it, right? If they like it, we’ll stay with it.”

First pitch for Game 2 is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.

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