Alabama baseball takes another step toward NCAA bid, beats Arkansas in SEC Tournament

HOOVER — Alabama baseball has Arkansas figured out.

At least this week, it seems.

Heading into the final series of the regular season last weekend, it appeared to be a tall task for the Crimson Tide to beat Arkansas once. Now, Alabama's done it three times in the past week.

The latest installment was a 4-3 victory over the Razorbacks on Wednesday in the second round of the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

No. 11 seed Alabama also won the series over third-seeded Arkansas, winning the last two games. Now the Crimson Tide has won three in a row against the Razorbacks.

Alabama advances to the next round. Because of rain forcing shuffling to the schedule over the first two days of the tournament, that game is not expected to be played until Friday.

Here are observations and takeaways from the game between Alabama (31-25) and Arkansas (38-7).

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Alabama takes advantage of Arkansas errors

The Razorbacks couldn't get out of their own way early.

Just when it looked like Arkansas would put together a good defensive play in the first few innings, Alabama  often found a way to make the most of it.

It started in the second inning when Tommy Seidl put a ball in play on a full count. Arkansas got the runner out at second, but as it tried to turn a double play, the first baseman couldn't collect the throw. That allowed Zane Denton to run home, and Alabama took a 2-0 lead.

Then in the fourth, the Crimson Tide took a 4-1 lead thanks to a throwing error from the catcher, allowing Seidl to score.

The Crimson Tide's ability to manufacture runs fueled by Arkansas' mistakes allowed Alabama to take an early lead.

Scoring runs late proves difficult again

The Crimson Tide has showed through two SEC Tournament games that it can score quickly and early.

But it has also gone through some serious scoring droughts later on.

Against Georgia in the first round Tuesday, Alabama scored five runs over the first two innings. Then it never scored again. Fortunately for the Crimson Tide, the defense prevented the Bulldogs from scoring more than three runs.

Then against Arkansas, Alabama jumped out to another early lead. The Crimson Tide had to hang on again, though, because the offense sputtered. It didn't score another run.

Bullpen does just enough for victory

When starter Jacob McNairy left, Arkansas had only scored one run. He finished the day having given up three hits, one earned run and one walk while striking out three over 4⅓ innings.

Jake Leger pitched well against the first batter when he stepped in during the fifth inning, striking out a batter and throwing out another at first with runners on the corners. But the next inning, he gave up a two-run home run to allow Arkansas to draw within 4-3.

The offense didn't do much to help the group, though. But the bullpen managed to prevent Arkansas from doing anymore damage.

Antoine Jean was at the forefront of those efforts. He pitched two innings late, allowing only one hit while striking out three.

Nick Kelly covers Alabama football and men's basketball for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter: @_NickKelly

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama baseball beats Arkansas Razorbacks 4-3 in 2022 SEC Tournament