Next Game: at Florida 3/31/2019 | 11 a.m. CT SEC Network+

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Alabama baseball suffered a 12-3 loss to No. 15 Florida on Saturday night at McKethan Stadium. Following game two of the series, the Crimson Tide is 20-8 overall, 2-6 in Southeastern Conference action.

"It was a really tough night for us," said Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon . "To Florida's credit, they really hit a lot of balls hard – 16 hits and five home runs. They're starting to look like the team that everyone anticipated going into the season. When you're facing a really talented team, you have to get ahead in the count; keep the ball down and out of the middle of the plate; and you have to be able to throw some secondary stuff for a strike; and we didn't do enough of that tonight."

Home runs were the story of the game on Saturday as the Gators tallied five with three solo shots and a pair of two-run homers to secure the series-clinching win. Florida reliever Christian Scott (3-1) earned the win for the Gators with 4.2 innings of one-run baseball, while Alabama starter Brock Love (3-1) suffered his first loss of the season.

A solo home run by both teams made it a 1-1 game after two innings of play. The Gators tallied a solo shot in the first to kick off the scoring, followed by freshman Drew Williamson recording his first home run of the season in the next half inning to even things up. Florida then used three home runs in the third to make it a 5-1 contest. Two of the three roundtrippers were solo shots with the third going for two runs.

Alabama was able to score one more in the top of the fourth with a sacrifice fly from senior Joe Breaux scoring T.J. Reeves from third. The freshman began the run-scoring sequence with a hit-by-pitch and moved to second on a walk before a passed ball put him 90 feet away for Breaux to cross him.

The Gators added two more in the bottom of the fourth. Two singles started things off and forced a Tide pitching change. The next batter dropped a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position before a third single in the inning scored the pair, making it 7-2 through four full.

Both teams would go scoreless until the top of the seventh when Alabama rallied for a run. Breaux led things off with a single and moved around to third before a passed ball allowed the center fielder to score to cut the Gator advantage to four at 7-3. Florida would add two in the seventh and three in the eighth to make it a 12-3 game, the eventual final.

The two teams return to the diamond on Sunday for an 11 a.m. CT first pitch at McKethan Stadium. Alabama will send freshman Tyler Ras , a righty, to the hill while Florida calls on sophomore right-hander Jack Leftwich in the series finale. Fans can catch all the action live on SEC Network+.

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