Alabama baseball earned its first SEC Tournament win since 2023 on Tuesday, taking down Missouri 4-1 in Hoover. The Crimson Tide cruised on the arm of starting pitcher Tyler Fay, who went six innings to earn the win.
With games packed together for as long as the Tide continues in the tournament, Fay’s performance to help save the bullpen was huge.
“Everything was feeling pretty good,” Fay said after the game. “I went out the first thing and I kind of just felt like I didn’t really have to think about where the ball was going. It was just really fluid.”
Missouri took the first lead of the game in the fourth inning, when Mateo Serna homered to right. Alabama quickly got back in the game, with Justin Lebron bringing home a run in the bottom of the first before an RBI single from Cade Snell brought home what would be the winning run.
Alabama added an insurance run in the seventh, then another in the eighth, the final run a homer to center by Brady Neal.
“Kind of all year I’ve been put in that position to come up with a clutch hit,” Lebron said after the game, when asked about his RBI. “And recently I’ve been struggling a little bit. My biggest thing going forward is thinking small and push it to the next guy. So my who goal is just to get to Cade Snell, the best hitter in the lineup at this point, so that kind of worked out for us.”
Missouri was the worst team in the SEC throughout the season, though it suffered through some injuries throughout the year. Next, up though, the challenge gets tougher for the Crimson Tide.
Alabama will face Tennessee in the first game of the day on Wednesday. The Volunteers took two of the three regular-season games against the Tide.
UA head coach Rob Vaughn said after the game that managing pitching going forward could pose a challenge. He did not name a starter for the Wednesday matchup against the defending national champions, the eighth seed in the tournament.
“We got a really good Tennessee team here that is comfortable playing in the postseason, that’s done that and we know how dangerous that lineup could be,” Vaughn said. “So this time of year, it’s all hands on deck.”
Wednesday’s game is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. CT in Hoover. The winner will move on and face top-seeded Texas on Thursday.