3 Takeaways as Alabama baseball sweeps Texas A&M on the road to open SEC play

Alabama baseball's opening SEC series against Texas A&M on the road was a measuring stick for how good this team really is. Alabama entered the series at 17-1 overall after opening the season 16-0. They passed the big test against the Aggies with flying colors, completing a three-game sweep in College Station to move to 20-1 overall and get off to a 3-0 start in league play.

Alabama won 6-4 on Friday, 6-2 on Saturday, and 2-0 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep of a Texas A&M team that entered the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the country. Alabama came into the series ranked No. 17 in the D1 Baseball poll and should see a sizable leap after a dominant series win over the 19th ranked Aggies.

3 Takeaways from Alabama's series sweep of Texas A&M

3. Alabama's pitching staff stepped up and answered the bell

Alabama's bats have been the story of the season so far, but it was the pitching staff that shined in College Station. There were plenty of fair questions about the starting pitching coming into SEC play, particularly with Sunday starter Bobby Alcock.

But Alcock had the best start of the season for a Tide starter, throwing seven shutout innings against A&M on Sunday. He allowed only four hits, walked two, and struck out eight. Braylon Myers shut down the Aggies in the final two innings to preserve a 2-0 Alabama win.

Alabama's pitching was dynamite all weekend long. The Tide allowed just six total runs across the three games. Alongside Alcock, Zane Adams and Riley Quick combined with him to pitch 17.2 innings and allowed only one earned run.

With the Tide's big bats, if they can get quality pitching from their weekend starters like they did in College Station, this team can be a legitimate contender in a loaded SEC.

2. Will Hodo keeps coming up clutch

Will Hodo had one of the wildest moments of the 2025 season to date when he hammered a walk-off home run against Ohio State last month as Alabama came back from a 10-0 deficit to stun the Buckeyes in Jacksonville.

In Saturday's game, Justin Lebron led Alabama to a 2-0 lead with a solo homer in the 6th and an RBI single in the 7th, but Texas A&M rallied to tie the game 2-2 going into the ninth inning. With the bases loaded, Hodo did what he does in clutch moments. He launched a line drive, grand slam homerun into the Alabama bullpen to give the Crimson Tide a 6-2 lead that would ultimately be the final score.

Hodo is as clutch as it gets and always seems to deliver for Alabama when they need him most.

1. This team just finds ways to win games

All three of these games in College Station were competitive, but Alabama found a way to win each one. Alabama is now 6-1 in games decided by three runs or less.

Coming into this weekend, they had been pummeling teams with their bats. Justin Lebron, Will Hodo, and company had been overpowering teams. Against the Aggies, the Crimson Tide found a way to win three straight games on the road despite only scoring a combined 14 runs.

Pitching led the way this weekend and gives further confidence that this team is legitimate and can compete in the SEC.

Next up for Alabama is a midweek matchup at home against South Alabama. After that, Alabama gets its first home SEC series of the year this weekend when they face a 20-0 Tennessee team that is fresh off an impressive three-game sweep of a Top 10 ranked Florida team in Knoxville.