Upchurch Dominates With Career-High Strikeouts as Bama Mercy Rules UNF in Game Three

The Crimson Tide completes the series sweep over North Florida thanks to a dominating Game Three win, powered by some terrific pitching and incredible hitting from Alabama in Game Three under the mercy rule.

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Alabama struck first in this game, with the Crimson Tide forcing three walks in the top of the first inning to load the bases, and then first baseman Andrew Purdy was pegged by a pitch, which advanced Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron home from third base, and gave the Tide the first run in game three.

In the very next inning, the Crimson Tide added to its lead when Alabama's catcher Brady Neal delivered a sacrifice fly to drive home right fielder Peyton Steele from third base to give the Tide a two-run lead going into the third inning.

Although Alabama scored two runs through the first two innings, it left a lot of opportunities in the inning, with the Tide leaving five runners stranded on base through the first two innings. Despite the wasted opportunities, the Crimson Tide still held a two-run lead going into the third inning thanks to a gutsy performance from freshman pitcher Myles Upchurch.

Upchurch was outstanding in this game with his only mistake coming in the top of the third inning when North Florida's Seth Alfredo sent a solo shot over left center field to give the Ospreys their first run of the game, making it a 2-1 ball game. Fortunately for the Tide, their freshman pitcher settled back in and picked up his fifth strikeout to retire the top half of the inning.

The fourth inning saw the Crimson Tide do some real damage with the Crimson Tide's catcher coming away with grandslam homerun over left field to give Neal his fourth homerun of the season, and the Tide four extra runs to its lead, following the grandslam the Crimson Tide's left fielder Justin osterhouse picked up an RBI single driving home Jason Torres to extend Alabama's lead to six runs going into the fifth inning.

On the defensive end, Upchurch continued to play terrific, with the Freshman tying his career high of nine strikeouts, which was set in Alabama's game three 11-1 win against Washington State back during the opening weekend. Upchurch reached that mark in only five innings of play today, with the six-foot-four, 230-pound pitcher closing out the first half of the first six innings with a strikeout. Upchurch would go on to set a new career high of strikeouts after finishing game three with 11 strikeouts through six innings, where he scattered four hits, allowed two runs, and walked one batter.

Alabama added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning thanks to a base-clearing double to deep right-center field from Jason Torres, which emptied the bases for the Tide, which was loaded moments before Torres's rocket that brought home three runners and expanded the Tide's lead to nine runs going into the sixth.

The next inning, Alabama added to its lead when center fielder Bryce Fowler sent a rocket over left field for his second home run of the season, with this one being a two-run shot, and grew the Tide's lead to 11 runs going into the seventh inning.

North Florida was able to muster a run in the top of the seventh inning, but that wasn't enough to stop the mercy ruling, with the game concluding in the seventh inning.

Alabama will improve to 14-3 on the season as its winning streak will increase to five games, as the Tide will be back in action Tuesday, March 10, when the Crimson Tide faces Troy at Sewell Thomas Stadium.

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