Alabama baseball has taken care of business so far in the Tuscaloosa Regional, earning back-to-back wins over Alabama State and USC Upstate to move to one win away from hosting a Super Regional for the first time in 20 years.
Alabama bruised, battered, and knocked out Alabama State 21-3 on Thursday, but found a more challenging matchup against USC Upstate, though the end result was still a Tide win. They just had to hold on for it.
Zane Adams gave the Crimson Tide six quality innings, and Alabama held a 7-2 lead when he left the game. Home runs by Eric Hines and Justin Lebron paced the offensive effort, but the Spartans staged a rally and cut the lead to 7-5 in the 9th inning with the tying run in scoring position.
Alabama will be back at The Joe on Sunday night at 7pm, awaiting the winner of USC Upstate/Oklahoma State on Sunday afternoon in an elimination game. The Crimson Tide will then have two opportunities to win one game to advance to the Super Regional round in Tuscaloosa.
If Alabama is going to do that, head coach Rob Vaughn believes his team needs more from the crowd at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. He didn't hide his displeasure after the win over USC Upstate, and he issued a challenge to Tide fans ahead of Sunday night's matchup.
Rob Vaughn says Alabama needs 'more' out of the fans at Sewell-Thomas Stadium
"I'm going to say this, people may get mad at me, but we need more. We need more, like I look out there and it's 7-2 and we got people gone and the stands aren't full. Like. Tomorrow night at seven o'clock, we need 7,000 people here rocking," Vaughn said. "I think these guys have deserved that. Not 7,000 people being entertained, but 7,000 people helping, scratching, clawing, and fighting for every pitch for nine innings. This town loves a winner, man, and we got a group of winners here. We need them to show up for these boys tomorrow and make this place hell for whoever we're playing tomorrow night."
In defense of the crowd at The Joe on Saturday night, the NCAA and umpires, in all their infinite wisdom, delayed the game an hour and a half for the threat of severe weather that never materialized. That's not going to help any crowd, especially when the game pushes toward 11pm local time. That's especially true when school is out, and a lot of students have already left town, so you are relying on family attendance.
But Vaughn is right to go to bat for his team. He's right to do what he can to ensure the crowd on Sunday night is raucous in nature.
This team is closing in on something that hasn't been done since 2006. That was the last time the Crimson Tide hosted a Super Regional series. That would put the Crimson Tide just two wins away from advancing to the College World Series, which would be the first time for the program since 1999.
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