No. 22 Alabama Baseball Suffers First Loss of Season to UT Martin, 9-4

The Crimson Tide was unable to overcome a late-inning surge from the Skyhawks

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 22 Alabama baseball suffered its first loss of the season on Wednesday afternoon, falling to UT Martin 9-4 at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

While the loss was the first of the year for the Crimson Tide (4-1), the victory was the first of the season for the Skyhawks (1-3).

"Disappointing day at the ballpark," Alabama coach Brad Bohannon said after the game. "Just really didn't do enough in any part of the game well enough to win. Just didn't pitch well enough, didn't hit well enough. In our situation — especially early in the season — we're just not equipped to play five games in a week and we have to do that early in the year before pitch counts are built up on the weekend.

"We're just, with our situation, not equipped to do that."

Starting on the mound for Alabama was junior right-handed pitcher Connor Shamblin. Through four innings, Shamblin allowed no runs off of two hits, walked none and struck out three.

The first three innings remained scoreless for both teams. However, the Crimson Tide jumped out to a 3-0 lead with an RBI single by sophomore left fielder Will Hamiter and an RBI single by sophomore shortstop Jim Jarvis. Alabama's third run came from a wild pitch, advancing Hamiter across the plate for the run.

At the top of the fifth, freshman reliever Brayden Rowe replaced Shamblin on the mound. After one batter, Rowe was replaced by junior Jacob McNairy.

The Skyhawks added a run in both the fifth inning off of McNairy and the sixth off of freshman reliever Jake Eddington. In the top of the seventh, junior shortstop Casey Harford doubled to left center, scoring two runs and giving UT Martin its first lead of the game.

Freshman right-hander Eli Giles came into the game, replacing Eddington.

In the bottom of the seventh with two outs and no runners on base, sophomore outfielder Owen Diodati crushed a ball off of the left field wall, safely reaching third base for the Crimson Tide's first triple of the season. In the next at-bat, junior first baseman Drew Williamson singled to right, bringing Diodati home and tying the game at four runs apiece.

In the top of the eighth, back-to-back home runs gave the Skyhawks a 7-4 lead. Two more runs in the top of the ninth for UT Martin only made things worse, and Alabama was unable to overcome the 9-4 Skyhawk lead.

For UT Martin, senior left-handed pitcher Sam Folks (1-0) is credited with the win. Freshman righty Ryan Insco (1) picked up the save.

Giles (0-1) was saddled with the loss due to the four late-inning runs he allowed in the eighth and ninth.

"There's going to be more of this," Bohannon said. "This is not just the one time. We play really, really young. We've got really good players, we've got a chance to have a really good team and we just gotta get better in every area of the game.

"We just gotta get better at playing the game and that doesn't happen overnight."

Alabama now takes a day off before returning to Sewell-Thomas Stadium for a three-game series against Wright State. First pitch on Friday is set for 3 p.m. CT (SEC Network+).