Alabama baseball defeats No. 9 Oklahoma in a decisive Top 25 SEC series.
The No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide overcame Mother Nature and a late Oklahoma rally for an 8-6 victory to take two of three from the No. 9 Sooners in SEC baseball play Sunday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
With the win, Alabama improved to 25-4 overall and 6-3 in SEC play. Oklahoma fell to 22-5 overall and 5-4 in conference play.
The Crimson Tide got to OU starter Malachi Witherspoon in the first inning courtesy of a three-run opposite field home run to right from Jason Torres that gave Alabama a 3-1 lead. It was Torres’ eighth home run of the season.
With the rain causing a weather delay after Alabama starter Aeden Finateri retired Oklahoma in the second, the Crimson Tide bats came back to life after play resumed. Bryce Fowler led off the second inning with a double and later scored on a groundout to bump the lead to 4-1.
Will Hodo hit a solo home run to deep left-center in the third, his eighth of the season to make it 5-1.
The Tide tacked on three more in the fourth after loading the bases with no one out. Snell hit an RBI groundout to score Fowler before Torres reached on an error off a misplayed line drive in right field that scored Richie Bonomolo and Brady Neal to make it 8-1.
Oklahoma caught a break at the expense of Alabama in the fifth after Snell and Bonomolo collided in the outfield, allowing Jason Park to score on an inside-the-park home run to cut the lead to 8-2. Finateri left after that, throwing 4 2/3 innings and allowing two runs on four hits. Matthew Heiberger took over and got out of the inning before working a scoreless sixth inning.
Oklahoma came to life in the latter innings, plating two runs in both the seventh and eighth to close the gap to 8-6 after a two-run homer by Dayton Tockey off Tyler Fay.
Another rain delay came in the bottom of the eighth after Fowler led off with a double. Justin Lebron drew an intentional walk with two outs, but Will Plattner grounded out to end the threat.
Carson Ozmer struck out Dasan Harris to start the ninth before Walk was retired on a well-hit fly to left. Trey Gambill grounded to first for the final out as Alabama won its second weekend series — both against Top 25 teams — in three tries.
Hodo (2-for-4), Fowler (2-3) and Neal (2-4) collected two hits for Alabama, who outhit Oklahoma 9-8. Ozmer notched his seventh save with Braylon Myers (3-0) getting the win in relief. Witherspoon (2-2) suffered the loss for Oklahoma.
Kade Snell, Richie Bonomolo exit game after scary collision
Snell and Bonomolo left the game after the fifth inning collision that allowed Park to score on the inside-the-park home run. Fowler shifted from right to center field to replace Bonomolo as Will Plattner checked into the game at catcher. Neal moved from behind the plate to right field. Garrett Staton took over in left field for Snell.
Bonomolo later checked back into the game in the sixth inning. Afterwards, Alabama coach Rob Vaughn provided an updated on Snell.
“The big thing is, he just got cut on the hand, so they had some stitches they had to put in there,” Vaught said of Snell. “That was a big piece of that, but we’ll get a better idea when we get in there. But it was good to get Richie back in there, and hopefully the stitches are kind of the least of our concern with Kade.”
Alabama baseball schedule 2025: Who do Crimson Tide play next?
The Crimson Tide host the Samford Bulldogs on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The game can be streamed on ESPN+/SEC Network+.
Alabama resumes SEC play next Friday when they travel to Plainsman Park to face the No. 12 Auburn Tigers (20-8, 4-5) beginning Friday at 6 p.m. Auburn was swept by the third-ranked Georgia Bulldogs (28-2, 8-1) over the weekend in Athens.