MADISON- What began as a slow scoreless game into the fourth inning concluded with a 6-3 victory for the Alabama Crimson Tide over the Belmont Bruins in a special mid-week college baseball game at Toyota Field. An announced crowd of 5,062 were presented with a game of power, pitching and a Crimson Tide victory, but they were also given a hometown feel to the game with one of Madison’s own gaining the victory for Alabama.

Freshman Sam Mitchell from Bob Jones High nailed down his first victory of the season (1-0) as he contributed two scoreless relief frames giving up one hit with one strikeout after coming into the game in the fifth inning with the Crimson Tide holding a 1-0 lead. He faced six batters in his two innings where the Bruins had one flyout and three groundouts against the 6-foot-7, 230-pound righthander.

A trio of other relief pitchers combined to hold the Bruins scoreless over the final 2.2 innings to preserve the Tide victory. Alton Davis picked up the save (S, 4) pitching the final inning.

“We had an awesome crowd tonight as this is a beautiful stadium and what a great town,” said Rob Vaughn, head coach of Alabama. “The hospitality we were shown was awesome and the crowd was great. It’s a heck of a lot of fun to play in front of that and it was huge for us to get the support from the fans of North Alabama.”

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when Alabama struck for one run and then added two runs apiece in the fifth and sixth innings. Belmont answered by scoring three in the seventh before the back end of the Tide bullpen took over. T.J. McCants blasted a 2-0 pitch over the rightfield wall for Alabama’s only dinger on the night. For the game, the Crimson Tide had 8 hits, 4 base-on balls, 9 strikeouts and left 7 on base.

Alabama is now 19-6 on the season while Belmont is 12-13.