May 26, 2000
STANFORD, Calif. - The University of Alabama hit three home runs and sophomore Scott Murphy tossed a complete game six-hitter as the Crimson Tide defeated Nevada, 8-2, in the first round of the NCAA Regional at Stanford on Friday. With the victory, Alabama advances to play the winner of the Fresno State-Stanford game at 3:00 pm (PDT) on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Wolf Pack will play the loser of the FSU-Stanford game in tomorrow's early game at 11:00 am (PDT).
Nevada jumped out to an early 2-0 lead as it scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings. The Crimson Tide responded, however, with seven runs in the next two innings. After Jeremy Brown led off the fifth inning with a solo home run, Darren Wood added a two-run blast with one out to give Alabama the lead for good. The following inning, freshman Ben King hit a one-out grand slam, the first of his career, which gave Alabama a 7-2 lead.
Murphy (8-2) was impressive throughout the day as he recorded his team-leading fifth complete game of the year and his first since a victory over Vanderbilt on April 28th. The complete game was also the first by an Alabama pitcher in the NCAA Regionals since Andy Bernard beat Stetson in 1996.
Offensively, Sam Bozanich led Alabama with three hits while Wood, Brown, King and Casey Lambert followed two hits each.