Five Alabama pitchers combined to scatter six hits, while walking no one and striking out five to lead the team to a 2-0 win over Middle Tennessee on Tuesday night. The win pushed the Tide’s winning streak to 12 games, and upped their overall record to 16-2. SEC play opens this weekend as the team travels to Oxford to take on the 13th ranked Ole Miss Rebels.

SHUTOUT

Freshman right hander Tyler Ras started the game on the mound, and went the first three innings, allowing three hits with one strikeout. Fellow freshman Dylan Smith followed and threw two innings allowing only one single. Junior Davis Vainer was next up and was the winning pitcher. Vainer was electric in his two innings of work, striking out three of the six batters he faced, showing control of his devastating slider, and being clocked at 95-97 on the radar gun. In nine innings this season, Vainer has allowed two hits with two walks and has struck out 14 batters. Junior Kyle Cameron had the eighth and allowed only a harmless single. Grad transfer Jeremy Randolph closed the game out, earning his third save, allowing one hit with one strikeout. In 10.2 innings this season, Randolph has allowed only four hits with two walks and 21 strikeouts. The combined shutout lowered the team ERA to 1.94 for the year.

Middle Tennessee has had a tough start to the season, and fell to 5-11 on the season. The team batting average is .202, and they have had trouble scoring runs. MTSU pitching coach, Kyle Bunn has done a great job with the staff, and they have a team ERA of 2.86. Bunn was the pitching coach for Alabama in the 2010 season when Nathan “Peanut” Kilcrease, Jimmy Nelson, and Adam Morgan, very nearly led the Tide to the College World Series. Nelson is now a member of the Milwaukee Brewers while Morgan pitches for the Phillies.

OFF NIGHT FOR THE BATS

The Tide had several opportunities to put runs on the board, stranding runners in scoring position in the second, third, and fourth innings. Finally in the sixth, Bama broke through. Keith Holcombe lined a one out single, followed by a double to right from John Trousdale. After a strikeout for out two, freshman first baseman Drew Williamson drilled a two strike pitch to center for a single and two runs driven in. The Raiders never really threatened seriously, and only had four runners reach scoring position all night.

Alabama collected six hits, walked three times, got hit twice by pitches, struck out nine times, and stranded eight runners. MTSU also had six hits, no walks, two hit batters, struck out five times, and stranded seven runners. Holcombe was the leading hitter with his 2-2 night and also reaching twice after being hit by a pitch. Williamson drove in the only runs of the game and finished 1-2 with a walk. Tide pitchers threw 121 pitches, with 89 of them going for strikes.

OVERVIEW

Although this was a not highly regarded Middle Tennessee team, this was still a good win. With the SEC season looming this weekend, and traveling to play a ranked team, it would have been easy to lose focus and drop a game. In fact, highly ranked LSU went to Natchitoches, LA to play Northwestern State tonight and lost 3-1. Northwestern is led by former Bama assistant Bobby Barbier as head coach, and former Bama All-American and all-time great, Taylor Dugas as hitting coach.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The series in Oxford has starting times of 6:30 p.m. on Friday and 1:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. All games will be available on the SEC Network Plus/Watch ESPN App. The real season is about to begin and it will be great to see how the Tide measures up as the competition ramps up.

Bama Baseball Fever, Catch It

Follow @rogerpatmyers on Twitter for live updates. Ill be in Oxford for the weekend.