Alabama baseball earned another series win with dominant victories over Presbyterian on Friday and Saturday, but the Blue Hose ended the Crimson Tide's 16 game winning streak to open the 2025 season on Sunday.
Alabama outscored Presbyterian 25-1 in the first two games of the series with both games ending by run rules in the 7th inning. On Sunday, the Blue Hose stunned the Crimson Tide 11-8 and raised some fair questions about whether Alabama has the pitching to hold up when SEC play gets started this coming weekend in College Station.
Alabama is now 16-1 on the season after wrapping up its final non-conference weekend series of the year. The Tide will face UAB in Birmingham on Tuesday and then opens SEC play starting Friday on the road against Texas A&M.
3 Takeaways from Alabama baseball's series win over Presbyterian
3. An "ace" performance from Zane Adams
On Friday, Zane Adams had his best performance of the young season and the best performance by a Tide pitcher, period. He threw six dominant innings, allowed only five hits, zero walks, and struck out 10 batters as Alabama rolled to a 10-0 win.
The freshman lefty is coming off of an All-SEC freshman team performance a year ago and seems to be hitting his stride right as SEC play begins.
Obviously, the competition is about to get much steeper for Adams and Alabama in general as conference play gets started, but fans should feel encouraged from what they saw from him in Friday's game.
2. Alabama still needs more pitching, especially on Sundays
With Adams throwing a gem and Riley Quick continuing to look steady, Alabama should be competitive on the mound on Friday and Saturday each weekend. But Sunday remains a big question mark after Bobby Alcock got rocked and couldn't get out of the third inning against Presbyterian.
Alcock threw 2.2 innings and gave up five earned runs. Alabama's bats kept them in the game and allowed them to take a lead, but a big sixth inning by Presbyterian pushed the Blue Hose ahead for good. Matthew Heiberger and Braylon Myers gave up four hits and five earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning pitched.
It wouldn't be a surprise if Alcock can't figure it out on Sundays if Rob Vaughn gives J.T. Blackwood or Georgia Tech transfer Aeden Finateri a shot. Finateri started 23 games during his tenure in Atlanta and recently started a mid-week game for the Tide against Jacksonville State.
1. Justin Lebron and Will Hodo had huge weekends
To the surprise of no one, Justin Lebron and Will Hodo did the heavy lifting for Alabama's offense this weekend:
Lebron: 6-of-11, 2 HR, 9 RBI
Hodo: 9-of-12, 3 HR, 9 RBI
Lebron is on historic pace for the Crimson Tide. The program record of 28 homers in a single season is in serious jeopardy. With his two homers this weekend, Lebron has now hit 11 home runs in Alabama's 17 games this season. He's driven in 43 runs and is slugging 1.000.
The obvious caveat to his ridiculous start is that it hasn't been against SEC pitching, but Lebron was pretty good against them last year as a true freshman. The buzz is building for the star Alabama shortstop and he could lead the Tide a long way.
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