HOOVER, Ala. — Sophomore right-hander Geoffrey Bramblett scattered nine hits in a complete-game effort Tuesday morning to lead the 11th-seeded Alabama baseball team to a 6-1 win against sixth-seeded Ole Miss in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
With the win, Alabama (31-26) advances to the double-elimination portion of the tournament and will take on third-seeded Texas A&M at 9:30 a.m. today (SEC Network). Ole Miss (30-26) will wait to see about a possible destination for the NCAA tournament. The field will be announced at 11 a.m. Monday (ESPNU).
Bramblett (8-3) threw his second complete game in as many chances during the postseason. He walked none and struck out a career-high 10.
“Early on it was the fastball location on both sides of the plate,” Bramblett said. “The changeup is a pitch I have been trying to work on and it helped me throughout the year. (Will) Haynie behind the plate was doing a great job. I hardly had to shake anything off. I just wanted to work fast and work down, and it helped.”
Former New Hope High School standout Will Golsan went 2-for-4 for Ole Miss, but Bramblett prevented the Rebels from stringing hits together. He also didn’t allow a walk in a start for the second time this season.
“I thought Geoffrey did a tremendous job,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. “For game one, I don’t think we could have asked for a whole lot more.”
Alabama backed Bramblett with an 11-hit effort, nine of which came with two outs. Casey Hughston, Mikey White, and J.C. Wilhite had multiple hits, while Hughston had a double and a team-high two RBIs.
Sophomore Errol Robinson went 2-for-5 with an RBI for his 14th multi-hit game of the season for Ole Miss. Freshman Kyle Watson added two singles, and sophomore J.B. Woodman also had two hits.
Senior Scott Weathersby (4-2) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. Second-team All-SEC honoree Wyatt Short threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Freshman Will Stokes retired both batters he faced in the ninth.
“I just told the players it doesn’t take a baseball genius to figure out what happened,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “Alabama just outplayed us. That is what makes the SEC such an unbelievably good league. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day. I thought Scott (Weathersby) pitched well. He just had a few tough innings, but credit Alabama. They had some tough at bats. On the other side of the ball, for someone to throw a complete game in the opening game of the tournament is terrific. We didn’t have very many opportunities but in the opportunities we did have they made great pitches.”
Alabama used four consecutive two-out singles in the fifth inning to take the lead. The hit parade started with a single up the middle by Chandler Avant. Georgie Salem followed to put runners on the corners for White. In the at-bat, Salem deked a steal of second, leading to a rundown between the bases that allowed Avant to steal of home as Salem retreated to first. White would come through with a hit to put runners on the corners once again and then a Hughston single to center brought across run number two, setting the score at 2-0 through four and a half.
Ole Miss made it 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth. Watson singled through the left side and advanced to second base on a groundout by Cameron Dishon. Robinson continued his clutch hitting with a base hit up the middle.
The Crimson Tide countered in the seventh. Riley Colburn led off with a single to chase Weathersby. Two consecutive outs moved him to third base before White singled to right-center field to make it 3-1. Hughston followed with a double to score White. An infield error extended the inning for Cody Henry, who blooped a single in front of the left fielder for the Crimson Tide’s third run of the inning. Wilhite singled to make it 6-1.
“We had a lot of our key hitters have a nice day today, and we were able to get them off to a good start in the tournament” Gaspard said. “We’ve played pretty good baseball for two and a half weeks, which is encouraging. We got off to a really good start.”
Ole Miss put two men on base in the eighth and in the ninth. However, Bramblett worked out of trouble to send the Rebels home.
“There are a lot of bad things about getting bumped in the first game,” Bianco said. “Some guys didn’t get to pitch. For (Brady) Bramlett and (Christian) Trent, that may be a good thing, but for the most part that may not be a good thing for everyone. When you do not get to use guys they have to sit. We need to get them some work during the week.
“I don’t get a vote (on whether his team will receive a bid to the NCAA tournament). I think we have done enough. When you look at our resume there is not a bad thing on it. We have a good RPI and a winning record in the best conference in the nation. We had series wins against Florida and Vanderbilt, and we split with Texas A&M and Louisville. All of those teams are vying for national seeds. This team has played the No. 1 toughest schedule in the country and made it through that gauntlet.”
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