{"id":217144,"date":"2026-04-03T06:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T06:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217144\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T06:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T06:50:19","slug":"brady-neal-slugs-go-ahead-homer-no-16-alabama-tops-jacksonville-state-4-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217144\/","title":{"rendered":"Brady Neal Slugs Go-Ahead Homer, No. 16 Alabama Tops Jacksonville State 4-3"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – Immediately after Jacksonville State (24-6) leveled the score in the 8th, Brady Neal<\/a> provided the game-winning swing, launching a solo home run with two outs in the 9th, helping Alabama (23-7) secure a 4-3 win at Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium on Tuesday. The Crimson Tide has now eight straight games, the most consecutive victories by Alabama this season.<\/p>\n

Neal’s lone hit of the night was the go-ahead homer, as the senior finished his night 1-for-4 with a hit-by-pitch. Three of the Tide’s four runs were scored via the home run, with John Lemm<\/a> plating the game’s first two runs with a two-run longball in the 2nd. Lemm eventually closed his night with a 1-for-3 line, drawing a walk and scoring two runs. Justin Osterhouse<\/a> also drove in a run, lining an RBI double in the 5th. The Tide’s left fielder was 1-for-2 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch.<\/p>\n

JT Blackwood<\/a> was phenomenal operating as the opener for Alabama, tossing 3.0 shutout innings, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced. The senior right-hander allowed just one hit while striking out two. Luke Smyers<\/a> surrendered a solo home run but was largely effective over his 2.0 innings, striking out a game-high three hitters over his seven batters faced. Austin Morris<\/a> saw an unearned run cross the plate as part of his final line, while Owen Sarna<\/a> and Connor Lehman<\/a> retired their lone respective batters.<\/p>\n

With the Tide leading 3-2, Evan Steckmesser<\/a> (1-0) entered from the bullpen in the 8th, inheriting the bases loaded with one out. Upon his entrance, Steckmesser struck out a fellow lefty for the second out, though a four-pitch walk saw the tying run come home. However, the southpaw nabbed the potential go-ahead run at home plate on a delayed steal. In the 9th, Steckmesser worked around a two-out walk, inducing a groundball to seal the Alabama win.<\/p>\n

“Just one of those games. Huge swing by Brady (Neal), great job by our pitching staff. I thought we left some stuff on the table, some meat on the bone there early, but we get the big swing from John Lemm<\/a> there in the second. We loaded the bases and couldn’t cash in, had another with second and third with one out and couldn’t cash in. Against a team like (Jacksonville State), you have to find a way to push one across, push another one across. You might look up and see in those late innings and see a different score and it’s a little more comfortable, but we made some big pitches in some big spots. (Evan) Steckmesser bent but didn’t break. A good win on the road and now we head home, head to Norman and get back to work.”<\/p>\n

How It Happened<\/p>\n


\n\tT2 | After Jason Torres<\/a> singled to lead off the inning, John Lemm<\/a> connected on a two-run home run to right-center. (2-0, Alabama)
\n\tT5 | Lemm worked a one-out walk before Justin Osterhouse<\/a> lined a double over the right fielder’s glove, with Lemm scoring all the way from first on the play. (3-0, Alabama)
\n\tB5 | Jax State found the scoreboard with a two-out, solo home run. (3-1, Alabama)
\n\tB7 | A one-out, two-base error put a man in scoring position for the Gamecocks. Grayson Ashe then followed the error with an RBI single to left. (3-2, Alabama)
\n\tB8 | The Gamecocks opened the inning with a single, with Greg Lachance stealing second. After a groundout pushed Lachance to third, Caleb Johnson walked and stole second, leading to Cooper Blauser’s intentional walk to load the bases. After a strikeout, Ashe worked a two-out walk to force in the tying run. (3-3)
\n\tT9 | With two outs, Brady Neal<\/a> lifted the game-winning home run to straightaway center. (4-3, Alabama) <\/p>\n

Postgame Notes<\/p>\n


\n\tAlabama has now won 11 consecutive games over Jacksonville State, a streak that began in 2019
\n\tThe Crimson Tide improved to 9-1 in games played against other programs hailing from the state of Alabama
\n\tBryce Fowler<\/a>\u00a0extended his on-base streak to 24 games
\n\tBrady Neal<\/a>\u00a0also extended his on-base streak to 21 consecutive games
\n\tJustin Lebron<\/a> has now reached base in 10 consecutive games
\n\tJohn Lemm<\/a> now owns an eight-game on-base streak and a six-game hitting streak
\n\tLemm is hitting .428 (9-for-21) with one double, two home runs, five RBI, two walk and five runs scored over the course of his six-game hitting streak
\n\tLuke Vaughn’s<\/a> 25-game on-base streak was snapped on Tuesday
\n\tAttendance: 1,852 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Up Next<\/p>\n


\n\tAlabama will remain on the road, traveling to No. 11 Oklahoma to begin a three-game series starting Thursday, April 2
\n\tFirst pitch between the Crimson Tide and Sooners is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT, airing on SEC Network+ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – Immediately after Jacksonville State (24-6) leveled the score in the 8th, Brady Neal provided the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-217144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}