Jason Torres' Grand Slam Electrifies Alabama to College World Series
The postseason is built on players stepping up when it matters most, and Alabama third baseman Jason Torres writ his name in crimson flame on Sunday evening.
The Crimson Tide beat St. John's 7-2 in Game 2 of the Tuscaloosa Super Regional - propelling UA to its first College World Series appearance since 1999. But the game ended on Monday, as after a nearly 5-hour lightning delay, the contest was postponed.
Up 3-2 in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and two outs, Torres hit a grand slam over the wall to the Right Field Ragers to make the score 7-2 - a much more difficult margin for St. John's, whose season ended after the game finished.
A human can't be blamed for a lightning storm, but it is quite a coincidence that the weather delay started less than an inning after his grand slam. No matter how many times you see it, thunder and lightning catch people by surprise and that's what Torres did to the fans at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
Torres came into Sunday having a relatively subpar season. He was seventh on the team in batting average (.236), OPS (.759), runs (30), SLUG percentage (.399) and on-base percentage (.360), sixth in home runs (8), tied for fifth in doubles (8) and was second in strikeouts (60). Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn said a few weeks ago that Torres' dominant performance against Ole Miss was his "senior moment," but that phrase might've been better used for Sunday.
Moments that put fans in a frenzy occur all the time across Alabama athletics. But there's only been a few times where there was a pure crowd POP.
These are the loudest moments. The ones that give you chills. Most of these moments happen on Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium - Terrence Cody's Rocky Block in 2009, Trevon Diggs' 100-yard scoop-and-score in 2019, and more recently, Ryan Coleman-Williams game-winning 75-yard catch in 2024 and Zabien Brown's 99-yard pick-six in 2025.
Alabama hasn't had too many crowd pops at Sewell-Thomas Stadium compared to Bryant-Denny Stadium, and of course, BDS holding roughly 95,000 more spectators plays a role in that. But while the Crimson Tide won Game 1 of the Tuscaloosa Super Regional 8-0 on Saturday night in front of a record crowd, Torres' grand slam in Game 2 had a pop as if it were the shot heard 'round the world.
Nevertheless, while it'll be tough to top this one, Torres now has more opportunities to create an even wilder moment that Alabama fans will never forget at the College World Series in Omaha.
This story will be updated with quotes from Vaughn and Torres
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/alabama as Jason Torres' Grand Slam Electrifies Alabama to College World Series.
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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 9:56 AM.