Bullpen Blows Another Lead, Alabama Baseball Drops Crucial Series Against Mississippi State
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — When Alabama Baseball needed a win most, it failed.
The Crimson Tide (23-10, 4-8 SEC) led 4-3 going into the seventh inning before allowing five unanswered runs in its 8-4 loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Sewell-Thomas Stadium on Saturday night.
"Kind of the same story of SEC play for us," head coach Brad Bohannon said. "We weren't good enough in the bullpen tonight. […] We're just obviously having a hard time closing games out. […] It's really hard to close games out and we've got to get better at it in a hurry."
The Bulldogs (19-14, 3-9 SEC) came into the weekend at 1-8 in the SEC. Now they leave Tuscaloosa with their first series win of conference play this season.
LHP Grayson Hitt got the start for Alabama and was pretty impressive. Hitt allowed three runs in six innings but finished with a career-high nine strikeouts.
The bullpen couldn't back him up.
Aidan Moza, Kade Woods and Hunter Furtado surrendered five runs in the final three innings — proving to be the killer for the Crimson Tide.
"We've got to execute more pitches late," Bohannon said. "Your margin for error is thin when you face lineups like [Mississippi State]. We have guys with stuff, [guys] that throw hard — they've just got to be more consistent and execute a little more."
With the loss, Alabama is still yet to win an SEC series this season.
Drew Williamson hit a two-run shot in the fifth inning to give the Crimson Tide a 4-3 lead.
Williamson, Jim Jarvis, Tommy Seidl and Andrew Pinckney all finished with multiple hits on Saturday night.
Alabama walked seven Mississippi State batters.
"The kids are really disappointed," Bohannon said. "We've got great kids and they give us everything they have. They want to win. We're very close to our season being much different than it currently is. They're disappointed."
The Crimson Tide would have liked to sweep the Bulldogs. Anything less than two of three was going to be and is a failure. Now Alabama has to move forward with a very difficult schedule still ahead.
"We've got the whole season in front of us," Bohannon said. "We've got 60 percent of our league schedule left. Even though we're all disappointed, we can still accomplish everything that we want if we play better."
"You've just got to keep playing. There's a lot of failure in baseball. It's tough losing a series at home. We're all disappointed. We'll get back to work on Monday and get better."
The Crimson Tide has the Auburn Tigers coming to town next weekend. First will be a midweek matchup with Southern Miss on Tuesday night.
How It Happened
See Also:
Alabama Baseball Evens Series with 11-1 Rout of Mississippi State
Alabama Baseball's Conference Skid Continues with 12-8 Loss to Mississippi State
Alabama Baseball Continues Perfect Midweek Streak Against Troy
