The No. 15-ranked Alabama baseball team got a seven inning performance from Spencer Turnbull as the Crimson Tide posted a 5-1 victory over the Texas A&M Aggies to open its Southeastern Conference series from Blue Bell Park on Friday night.
The Crimson Tide (21-8, 7-3 SEC) and the Aggies (18-13, 4-6 SEC) will return to action on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 2:05 p.m. CT from Blue Bell Park. Game one of the doubleheader will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest. Game two of the Saturday twin-bill will begin 30 minutes after the completion of game one.
With the victory, Alabama has won its last five games and is 17-3 in its last 20 games. The Tide also improved to 3-5 in road games this season, while posting its first ever victory in College Station against the Aggies. Alabama is now 1-3 all-time when playing in College Station.
After the Aggies loaded the bases off Turnbull (4-1) in the first inning, the junior right hander settled down to throw seven strong innings, posting his fifth “quality start” of the season. Turnbull allowed one run in seven innings, allowing five hits with three strikeouts and two walks. Nick Eicholtz allowed a hit in a scoreless eighth inning and Thomas Burrows closed the game with a perfect ninth inning, in his team-leading 12 appearance of the season.
Alabama posted its 14th double-digit hit performance of the season, collecting 10 hits against three Aggie pitchers. Mikey White led the way with his third three-hit game of the season, going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Georgie Salem was 2-for-4 with an RBI, Chance Vincent was 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored and Ben Moore was 1-for-3 with two RBI.
Texas A&M starter Daniel Mengden (2-4) took the loss after throwing eight innings, allowing four runs on seven hits with two walks and nine strikeouts. Reliever Jason Freeman allowed a run on one hit in the ninth inning before Ty Schlottmann got the final two outs for the Aggies.
Alabama got on the scoreboard first when Moore singled up the middle with two outs in the third inning to drive in Hunter Webb from second. Texas A&M tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth when Jace Statum singled through the right side to drive in Nick Banks, who singled to start the inning, from second.
Bama answered in the top of the next inning, scoring twice off Mengden. After loading the bases with no outs, White delivered a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in Vincent and allowed Webb to move up to third. On the next pitch, Moore followed with a sacrifice fly to center field scoring Webb to make the score 3-1 in favor of the Tide.
UA extended its leads to 4-1 in the sixth when Vincent delivered a two-out RBI single to left field, scoring Wade Wass from second. Wass walked to lead off the inning and then stole second to get into scoring position. After opening the ninth inning with a single, Vincent scored again on an RBI single by Salem, capping the scoring a 5-1 Tide.
Recap Courtesy of UA Media Relations