#16 Bama Baseball Sweeps McNeese St.

Tide Ends Homestand with Sweep of Cowboys

Freshman third baseman Jake Smith smashed an RBI single to left field in the bottom of the 11th inning to score senior center fielder Emeel Salem with the winning run as the 16th ranked University of Alabama baseball team posted a 4-3 win over McNeese State to complete a three-game sweep Sunday afternoon at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

Alabama (12-2) ended their 14 game homestand with the comeback win as the Crimson Tide trailed McNeese St. 3-1 in the 7th inning on Sunday. Tide starter Austin Hyatt took a shutout into the sixth inning. The Cowboys managed only a pair of two-out singles against Hyatt through six innings. Alabama senior Bernard Robert pitched a scoreless 10th inning to get the victory for Alabama and improved to 2-0 on the season.

On Saturday, Alabama used a dominant performance from Kasey Kebedeaux to down the Cowboys 9-1. Keboduex (2-0) throw 94 pitches and only allowed one run over eight innings of work for the win. The eight inning performance is the longest by an Alabama starter this season Alabama had 14 hits in the game and was led by sophomore Alex Avila's three hits, including two doubles. Freshman Brandon May and Jake Smith also added three hits apiece for Jim Wells' club.

Friday nights opening game saw Alabama collect 15 hits, all singles, to down the Cowboys 6-4. Starter Miers Quigley pitched a very solid seven innings giving up two runs on two hits and a career high nine strikeouts. Junior Josh Copeland used his new side arm motion to pitch a scoreless 9th inning for his third save of the season.

Alabama has a busy week ahead as it heads to Pearl, MS on Tuesday to take on the Southern Miss Golden Eagles at 6:30 pm. The Tide then returns home to take on Tennessee Tech on Wednesday night, then host the 7th ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers for a three game series starting Friday night at "The Joe".