No. 19 Alabama Baseball's Pitching Corps Dominates in Opener

Alabama baseball's Opening Day was productive for the bats, but the pitching staff sealed the deal in Friday's shutout.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— When a starting pitcher is returning from an injury, it's often the hope that he can work through his first game back in uneventful fashion. No. 19 Alabama's Ben Hess stole the show in his return from an injury that cut his 2023 campaign short, getting the ball on Opening Day in his junior season.

He wasn't the only standout performer on the mound on Friday. He and his two cohorts, Hagan Banks and Braylon Myers, limited the visiting Manhattan Jaspers to just two hits in a 4-0 victory.

"Elite pitching. I say it all the time. I told our arms this. The starting pitcher really sets the tone for the whole game," head coach Rob Vaughn said. The contest was his first regular season game as the Alabama coach, and his first win at the Capstone. "Heater [Hess] did an unbelievable job, not just with the success he had, but just on the attack, kinda setting the tone for what we're gonna be not only during the game, but this year." 

Hess' line finished at four innings pitched with one hit, no runs and a whopping nine strikeouts. The right-hander was on a pitch count, but still did enough to be the pitcher of record for his team, starting his season off with a 1-0 mark. "I went out there, had a plan, attacked the strike zone, got ahead early," Hess said. "Our defense played great. It feels great to be out there and pitch. It's a ton of fun."

Fellow junior Hagan Banks came on in relief of the Crimson Tide's ace in the fifth inning. He has experience as a starter and as a reliever, both in conference play and in other games. He threw 2.2 innings of one-hit ball and tallied five punchouts of his own. Hess caught several of his batters looking. Banks was making some of them swing out of their spikes. "Hagan Banks. Outstanding," Vaughn said. 

Right-handed junior Braylon Myers came in after Banks, when the Jaspers had their only threat of the game: two were on with two away after Banks walked his last batter. He induced an unassisted groundout to third base to end the frame, and closed things out with two more innings. His strikeout was a backwards 'K' of Jaspers shortstop Josiah Brown. 

Between the three pitchers, all returning players who've been with the team since 2022, there were 15 cumulative strikeouts and a pair of hits. "I have a lot of people around me to help support me," Hess said. "It was a long offseason. I think it was like 322 days since the last time I pitched."

"Not that you're counting," interjected Vaughn with a laugh. "It just felt great to be back out there with the team," Hess added. "I knew if I just stayed the course, and focused on the day-to-day, that I would get back to this point."

Vaughn reiterated his praise of associate head coach and pitching coach Jason Jackson, whom he placed tantamount importance on retaining when he came to Tuscaloosa. "There's no secret we have talent on the mound," he said. "I think what our guys do on an extreme level is they don't forget what makes elite pitchers elite. It's not just the stuff that comes out of their hand. It's their plan, it's their mentality, it's how they attack, and I hear that preached on a day-in and day-out basis." Unfamiliar was the word he used to describe the way the arms prepare, in relation to how that preparation might be perceived by a lot of people.

When the Crimson Tide goes for the series win on Saturday, it will be hoping for more of the same from sophomore Riley Quick, who pitched key innings in league play last spring and has now earned the second spot in the weekend rotation. Lefty closer Alton Davis II warmed up on Friday but did not pitch, leading to the possibility that one of the team's star players makes his season debut later in the weekend.

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No. 19 Alabama Baseball Rides Early Start to Opening Day Win vs. Manhattan