To wrap up the April schedule, Alabama baseball began a weekend road trip to Oxford, Mississippi, against the Ole Miss Rebels, looking to improve its road record in a big series.

Needing an extra boost in the home stretch of the season, head coach Rob Vaughn’s squad was looking for an important momentum boost before it enters a tough remainder of the year.

Entering the weekend, the Rebels were sitting right behind the Crimson Tide in the SEC West in fifth place, and were looking to shake up the standings at its home ballpark.

However, after securing two victories over Ole Miss on the road, No. 23 Alabama won the series, and improved to a 28-16 record (9-12 SEC), with about three weeks of regular season baseball to be played.

Here’s how everything went down in Oxford this weekend.

Game one:

Alabama kicked off its series against the Rebels on Thursday evening and came out swinging for the fences…literally. The Crimson Tide set the tone early, hammering two home runs in a 12-0 mercy rule victory on the road.

Vaughn’s squad began its offensive onslaught by tallying four hits in the first two innings, and struck first on the scoreboard with a run in the third inning. However, Alabama saw its best inning of the series in the fourth frame.

With a small lead entering the top of the fourth, the bats quickly got hot and stayed hot for the Crimson Tide. Following a hit by a pitch and two back to back doubles, the lead quickly expanded to three runs, before a three-run home run by first baseman Will Hodo grew the margin even more.

Immediately after the three-run blast, three more consecutive hits put runners on base for catcher Mac Guscette who launched a ball over the left field fence and brought home three more, giving Alabama a whopping 10-0 lead in the fourth inning.

To cap off the incredible offensive performance from the Vaughn’s crew, the Crimson Tide added a couple more runs in the fifth inning to balloon the lead to a dozen.

“The hitters gave us some relentless at-bats,” Vaughn said. “It was a heck of a job by our guys to understand the strike zone and stay with our plan on offense.”

While the bats were seemingly unstoppable all night long for Alabama, the performance on the mound was just as dominant too. On the bump was senior lefty Greg Farone who pitched all seven innings of the mercy rule victory and finished his night with six strikeouts, six hits allowed, and no runs allowed.

“Greg (Farone) made hitters miss, commanded the zone and moved it in and out well,” Vaughn said. “His breaking ball had bite to it, and he had feel for the changeup tonight. He was just outstanding.”

Game two:

While Alabama had all the momentum going into Friday night’s game two of the series, Ole Miss was looking for an appropriate response to the tough loss it faced in game one. Unfortunately for the Crimson Tide, the Rebels came out with a vengeance, and were able to even the series with a hard fought 9-8 victory.

Ole Miss got things started very quickly, putting up a run in the first inning and adding two more in the third inning while Alabama was struggling to retaliate. However, the Crimson Tide wasn’t out of it for very long.

After putting up a run in the fourth inning, Vaughn’s squad was able to take the lead in the top of the fifth inning after a two out single by Lebron to bring home one, and was immediately followed by a three-run home run by Will Hodo to take a 5-3 lead over the Rebels.

Just as momentum swung in Alabama’s favor, it went right back towards Ole Miss as head coach Mike Bianco’s group was able to put up four runs of its own in the bottom half of the fifth to retake the lead once again.

A single and a couple of doubles in the sixth frame was enough to allow the Crimson Tide to tie it up at seven runs apiece, but the Rebels were able to retaliate with two more runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning following back-to-back solo home runs to tally its ninth run of the night.

"We just put too many guys on for free and weren't able to get a zero there in those middle innings,” Vaughn said. “After we scored to take the lead (in the fifth), they respond with four and then we pump two up there to tie it up, but they answered immediately and get two right back.”

Alabama had three more innings to tie it up once more, but was only able to scratch across one more run and suffer the tough, one run loss on the road for game two. Leading the Crimson Tide at the plate was Lebron who went 3-for-5 with three RBIs, including his solo shot in the fourth inning.

Game three:

While both teams faced a tied series and a potential SEC standings shakeup on the line, Saturday’s matinee matchup became the crucial tiebreaker game. On a beautiful weekend afternoon in Oxford, Mississippi, ultimately a mid-game offensive explosion decided the outcome.

After a scoreless first inning, Ole Miss was able to put a dent in the scoreboard in the second frame, following three consecutive singles to bring home one run and take the early lead. Soon after, the Crimson Tide was able to retaliate after third baseman Gage Miller drilled a solo shot out to left field to tie it up.

From there, it was a stalemate from both sides for a couple of innings. Alabama’s lefty pitcher Zane Adams controlled the mound from the start and tallied two of his three strikeouts across the third, fourth, and fifth innings, keeping the Rebels at bay.

However, in the sixth inning, the scoreboard changed the most it had all afternoon long. With one out, continuing his incredible series, Lebron nailed a two-run blast to extend the lead, before back-to-back doubles brought another run home.

Following Blake Snell’s score off of a wild pitch to add another run to the tally, Alabama’s lead blossomed to 5-1 in a matter of minutes, and suddenly it was in the driver’s seat in which the Crimson Tide wouldn’t let off the gas for the rest of the day.

Ole Miss attempted to claw its way back into the game in the eighth inning, after a two-run blast gave the Rebels some life, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with the five runs that Alabama put up across the final three innings of the afternoon, resulting in a 10-3 victory for the Crimson Tide.

At the plate, Alabama was led by Guscette who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, including his solo homer in the seventh inning. Also having a hot bat was Miller, who finished 3-for-5, also with a home run as well.

The Crimson Tide will be continuing its road schedule against Mississippi State in early May, following finals week. Alabama will travel to Starkville on Friday, May 3, for a 3-game series against the Bulldogs on the road for a tough series as well.