LEXINGTON, Ky. – Alabama baseball (15-4, 0-1) was unable to overcome a six-run deficit created by Kentucky (16-2, 1-0), as the Crimson Tide was bested 7-4 by the Wildcats on Friday at Kentucky Proud Park. The loss snaps the Crimson Tide’s six-game winning streak and represents Alabama’s first conference defeat this season.

Justin Lebron slugged his ninth home run of the season in his first turn at the plate, a solo homer that gave the Tide the initial lead. Lebron finished the night 2-for-5 with one RBI. Bryce Fowler managed an identical 2-for-5 line, providing a double, while John Lemm was 1-for-4 with a three-run home run.

Tyler Fay (3-2) made his fifth start of the spring on Friday and battled for 7.0 innings. Fay saw the Wildcats score at least one run in each of the first five innings, though the right-hander did well to retire nine consecutive batters before his exit. Fay was responsible for eight hits, seven runs (six earned) and one walk while collecting eight strikeouts. Ashton Crowther tossed the bottom half of the 8th, working around a hit and a walk to produce one strikeout in a scoreless frame.

“There isn’t such a thing as a moral victory. At the end of the day, we got beat tonight and we weren’t good enough. But it’s the first time this year I’ve seen us get down big and things not be going our way and crawl our way back into it. It’s the first time we’ve done that this year. Those games when we’ve been behind, we hadn’t even made it interesting up to this point. We were down 7-1 and they had to put their closer in the game. (Jaxon) Jelkin was elite. That was elite, elite stuff tonight. We had tough at-bats, we grinded him out, we gave ourselves a chance, we just weren’t good enough early in the game. Credit Tyler (Fay), he got better as he went. The fact that we didn’t have to go get him early in the game is going to pay dividends for the rest of the weekend. I liked the fight, the way we kept coming, that’s the mentality I’ve been waiting to see. The challenge is now can we come out do the same tomorrow and play a more complete game.”

How It Happened

• T1 | Justin Lebron opened the scoring with a one-out, solo home run to left-center field. (1-0, Alabama)
• B1 | The Wildcats struck back immediately, as a leadoff single was followed by a one-out, two-run home run. (2-1, Kentucky)
• B2 | UK again connected on a two-run home run after a leadoff single. (4-1, Kentucky)
• B3 | The Wildcats’ Luke Lawrence opened the inning with a walk, later stealing second and reaching third after a throwing error on the steal attempt. With two outs, a flyball to left was mishandled, allowing Lawrence to score. (5-1, Kentucky)
• B4 | With two outs, Owen Jenkins lifted a solo home run to right. (6-1, Kentucky)
• B5 | After a single and a double put two in scoring position for UK, Tyler Cerny dropped a one-out sacrifice bunt to drive in a run. (7-1 Kentucky)
• T6 | Lebron and Brady Neal led off the inning with singles, preceding John Lemm’s one-out, three-run home run off the foul pole in right. (7-4, Kentucky)

Postgame Notes

• After throwing 7.0 IP on March 6 against North Florida, Tyler Fay matched his career best innings total again on Friday
• The loss marked just the second game this season the Crimson Tide did not steal a base
• The home run stretched Justin Lebron’s hitting streak to six games
• Luke Vaughn elevated his team-high on-base streak to 15 games
• Bryce Fowler extended his on-base streak to 13 games
• Brady Neal improved his on-base streak to 10 games
• John Lemm’s hitting streak now sits at seven games while his on-base streak is now at eight games
• Justin Osterhouse maintained his on-base streak, which now sits at eight games
• Brennan Holt and Jason Torres have now both reached base in seven consecutive games
• Ashton Crowther did not allow a run for the fourth-consecutive outing
• Attendance: 2,717

 Up Next

• Alabama will continue its series with No. 21 Kentucky on Saturday, March 14
• First pitch between the Crimson Tide and Wildcats is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT, airing on SEC Network+