Harvard gives up inside-the-park home run with three errors on one play vs. Alabama

Kolby Robinson didn’t have to force anything. Getting the ball in play would have been more than enough.

When Alabama baseball’s senior shortstop stepped into the batter’s box in the eighth inning, UA had just taken a 4-3 lead with no outs. The worst possible outcome — grounding into a double play — would still have been enough to bring in an insurance run and keep the inning alive.

That worst possible outcome looked as if it were coming to fruition, when Robinson’s chopper was collected by Harvard first baseman Logan Bravo. The three throws that followed scored two more UA runs, turning a thrilling come-from-behind win into Alabama’s eighth win of five runs or more.

Three errors in one play — on top of another one earlier in the eighth — preserved Alabama’s undefeated start in a 10-5 win. The Tide improving to 11-0 makes it tied for the second-best start in school history with the 1998 team; the 1997 team holds the record with 15 straight wins to start its season.

“I have no idea, it was crazy,” Robinson said. “I just put it in play with two strikes and was running. Every time I went to a bag, overthrew the next guy so I kept going, overthrew the next guy so I kept going, overthrew the guy at home so I just went.”

Putting the ball in play was enough to score Peyton Wilson from third; the first overthrow, from Bravo, gave pinch runner Jackson Tate room to move to third and Robinson to advance to second behind him. Harvard left fielder Ben Rounds misfired to third base trying to get Tate, an error that scored Tate and let Robinson round third. Harvard third baseman Will Jacobsen copied Rounds’ mistake, throwing errantly in an attempt to get Tate at home, a miss that allowed Robinson to score. 

The play gave UA a four-run lead without an out recorded in the inning.

UA concludes the series with the Crimson (0-2) at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.