Alabama suffered an opening day loss to the Florida Atlantic Owls, 5-2, then was unable to avoid a winless first weekend, losing Saturday 9-2 then again on Sunday 9-4.
This marked the first time the Crimson Tide has been swept by a non-conference opponent since 2001 against Central Florida, and the first 0-3 start to a season since 1952. A non-conference opponent had never swept Alabama in a three-game series at home before this weekend.
“Give credit to Florida Atlantic,” head coach Mitch Gaspard said. “They played terrific all weekend and really exposed a lot of areas for us right now that we have got to get cleared up.”
Gaspard said there were “too many errors at critical times,” including two of them that allowed Florida Atlantic to control Sunday’s game.
In the top of the second inning, a passed ball by catcher Brett Booth and a wild pitch by left-handed pitcher Justin Kamplain allowed two Owls base runners to advance to scoring position.
The Tide then saw third baseman AJ Cole commit a fielding error and Cameron Carlisle commit a throwing error on the same play, allowing the two Florida Atlantic base runners to score and batter Mike Albaladejo to move to second.
“We have to clean up our defense a little bit,” senior centerfielder Taylor Dugas said. “Errors will make you lose a game in a heartbeat.”
With Alabama down 5-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the hopes for a comeback started to rise after junior second baseman Kenny Roberts blasted an inside fastball for a three-run home run to left field, batting in Ben Moore and James Tulledge.
“It felt great,” Roberts said. “At the end of the day, I’m still upset that we got swept. But, for that moment, I had a feeling we were going to pull through. It excited my teammates and me. I felt like we were going to pull through.”
The hope was still alive after a scoreless sixth inning until lightning struck twice against the Tide.
Alabama saw FAU senior right fielder Alex Hudak hit two home runs on Sunday, one in the top of the first to enable the Owls to take an early 2-0 lead, then a three-run home run in the top of the eighth inning that gave Florida Atlantic the 9-4 lead that would stay for the remainder of the game.
Hudak ended the series with six hits and seven runs-batted in on twelve at-bats and ended the series without an error.
Pitching was also an issue for Alabama on Sunday. Kamplain’s start lasted three innings and saw FAU score the first four runs of the game. After Kamplain’s departure, only one of the seven pitchers Gaspard used lasted more than one inning.
Five of the seven pitchers gave up two hits or more, and five earned runs were scored on the seven pitchers. Only one strikeout was recorded among them.
“Pitching-wise, I think we have to make big pitches at the right time,” Gaspard said. “I really think the pitching wasn’t as bad as it appeared. It was some critical errors that made it appear a lot worse from a pitching standpoint.”
Gaspard also thought the offensive aspect of his team had difficulty producing early.
“The offensive end was probably the most surprising to me throughout the weekend,” Gaspard said. “We had been pretty good offensively through the fall and the early spring, and the offense just didn’t show up.”
Gaspard added, “At the same time, we play 56 games. We have to tighten the belt, really get to work and starting improving our team.”
