Too Little, Too Late for Alabama Baseball in 7-2 Loss to No. 13 Florida

HOOVER, Ala. — For 6 2/3 innings, it was all within reach for Alabama.

Back-to-back three-run innings in the seventh and eighth doomed the Crimson Tide from securing a spot in the 2021 SEC Baseball Tournament semifinals in a 7-2 defeat against No. 13 Florida on Thursday evening.

"Congratulations to Florida," Alabama coach Brad Bohannon said at the Hoover Met. "They are a heck of a team."

Crimson Tide junior right-hander Dylan Smith (1-7, 4.04 ERA) breezed through five scoreless frames before allowing a leadoff home run to dead-away center field by Gators third baseman Nathan Hickey.

Smith would later retire the next three batters before running into trouble with a leadoff double to right fielder Sterlin Thompson, then an RBI-double to second baseman Cory Acton two batters later.

Following a steal of third by Acton, Mac Guscette recorded an RBI-groundout, then left-fielder Jacob Young sent a missile over the left-field wall into the Gators bullpen to extend Florida's advantage to 4-0.

On 105 total pitches, Smith hurled seven innings of work, struck out six batters and walked none. He allowed four earned runs on nine hits.

Smith's counterpart, Franco Aleman (1-4, 5.61 ERA), also went seven innings and was credited with the win, allowing no runs on just five hits and five strikeouts.

"I feel like we just kind of ran into a buzzsaw today," Bohannon said. "Aleman, that had to be the best game he's pitched this year. Getting on both sides of the plate, but be low and live on his fastball and threw his secondary pitches around the zone."

Alabama sent out freshman right-hander Jake Eddington in relief of Smith and he gave up the Gators' three other runs off of an RBI-single from Thompson and a two-run RBI-single from Acton in the eighth.

He stuck out one batter and walked another in his two innings of work.

Run support has been a theme throughout Smith's starts this season as Alabama as only scored more than four runs four times in his 15 starts and in seven of his eight losses, the Crimson Tide only scored two runs.

"It's remarkable how bad we've been offensively when he's pitched," Bohannon said. "His stuff and how well he's performed is so far not reflective in his record, and I hate that for him. Dylan is a really popular kid on our team. He's just got a really infectious personality and just a really lovable young man."

Alabama's only two runs of the game came in a ninth-inning rally on RBI-singles from third baseman Zane Denton and left fielder Jackson Tate. For the game, the Crimson Tide recorded seven hits.

Second baseman Peyton Wilson reached base three times, all on singles, while right-fielder Andrew Pinckney went 2-for-4 at the plate.

The Crimson Tide faces a do-or-die elimination game on Friday morning in a rematch against Tennessee, which run-ruled Mississippi State in eight innings, 12-2, earlier on Thursday.

"We've played Tennessee four times, and I think there's been two extra-inning games, and I think the other two may be one-run games, 2-2 each way," Bohannon said. "So we've had great battles with them. I have a lot of respect for their team, and we're excited to get another shot at them tomorrow."

After beating the Volunteers in extras on Wednesday afternoon, 3-2, confidence is still running high in the Alabama clubhouse.

"I think we're pretty confident, understanding we ran into a hot team today," Denton said. "But we've been playing pretty well lately. We've got to wipe today clean and focus on tomorrow. We feel pretty confident against Tennessee."