Alabama Baseball off to Best Season Start in Program History

TUSCALOOSA, Ala — No. 23 Alabama slugs their way past Presbyterian 15-1 in seven innings to stay undefeated, marking the best start to the season in program history; while tying the program's longest win streak.

Rob Vaughn's opening statement following Alabama's historic 15-1 win over Presbyterian:

"Really proud of our kids, man. They did a good job showing up and ringing the bell. Just another really professional win. I thought we were really good offensively... now it's time to turn our attention to tomorrow and try to go out and finish the series."

Alabama starter Riley Quick earned credit for the win, his fourth of the year tossing 4.1 innings of two-hit baseball.

Quick began his afternoon strong, forcing three groundouts to keep any Blue Hose runners off the basepaths in the first.

In the home half of the first, Bryce Fowler worked a leadoff walk to begin the game. However, two singing strikeouts from Justin Lebron and Coleman Mizell and an out via interference on Fowler ended the inning without any runs crossing home plate.

The second inning was once again clean for Quick, the right-hander allowed a one-out hit by pitch, but forced two outs to get out of the inning unscathed.

The second inning, per usual, was explosive for the Crimson Tide, jumping out to an early 9-0 lead.

Get our free mobile app

Jason Torres and Will Hodo began the inning with a single and a double respectively. Brennen Norton worked a walk the following at-bat to load the bases for the Crimson Tide captain Kade Snell. Snell lined a sac fly to center for the first run of the evening.

The floodgates would open from there, an array of scrappy hitting pushed the Crimson Tide lead out to 5-0.

With bases loaded and two outs, Will Hodo put the cherry on top of the inning with a grand slam to right field, extending the Alabama lead out to 9-0.

The Crimson Tide continued to overpower the Blue Hose with both excellent pitching and offense.

In the bottom of the third, a Fowler one-out single to right field put the Crimson Tide in the ten-run rule territory.

The following at-bat with two runners on and one out, Justin Lebron continued to do Justin Lebron things: blasting a no-doubt three-run homer to left field, pushing Alabama's lead out to 13-0.

Alabama maintained their firm grip on the game, allowing a lone run via a solo shot from Presbyterian left fielder Amman Dewberry in the fifth to cut the Crimson Tide lead down to 13-1.

The Crimson Tide tacked on two more in the fifth via a passed ball, scoring Fowler, and a Hodo single to score Lebron.

Hagan Banks and Beau Bryans combined to close the game, allowing zero runners to reach base.

The obvious elephant in the room (or stadium?) is Rob Vaughn's Alabama squad off to the best start in program history while tying the program's longest winning streak at 16.

Vaughn humbly stated, "Man, I haven't done anything. I got really good players and I got really good coaches. It's really a testament to just the professional mentality of our guys. They're still young men and they're maturing...obviously proud of how they've started but it doesn't mean anything if you don't keep moving in the right direction."

Will Hodo, one of the longest tenured players on the Crimson Tide roster stated, "To be honest, it's crazy to say that I've been here for four years because it's gone by with a snap of a finger. Like coach Vaughn said, I love this place. It means a ton to me that we're having this kind of success."

Alabama retakes the field Sunday at 1 p.m. looking to advance to 17-0 and break the program record for the longest winning streak in program history.

For more Alabama Baseball, Basketball, and Football content from Simon Besnoy, follow him on Twitter at @SimonBesnoy and stay tuned to Tide1009.com for daily news.