No. 4 seed Alabama was run-ruled 13-3 in eight innings by No. 5 seed Florida, as the Crimson Tide went one-and-done in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament.
Tyler Fay got the starting nod for the Crimson Tide and was tagged with the loss. He faced off against future first-round pick Liam Peterson, who earned credit for the win.
“Obviously not the way we wanted today to go,” head coach Rob Vaughn said. “Peterson, this is the third time we’ve seen Peterson in the last two years, and by far the best version we’ve seen of him the last two years. I mean, the stuff was real. Tons of strikes.”
Fay worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 top of the first inning with a pair of strikeouts, making it 10 straight no-hit innings against the Gators dating back to his historic no-hitter back on March 20.
Right fielder Brady Neal and third baseman Jason Torres both picked up two out base knocks in the bottom of the inning. However, catcher John Lemm struck out on three pitches to end the inning.
Ethan Surowiec led off the top of the second inning with a single, as the Gators finally cracked the hit column against Fay.
“Well, I was hoping Fay was going to make some type of history and no-hit them a second time in a row,” Vaughn said. “That would have been fun. They were actually funny when they got the first hit; they were screaming for the ball. It was actually pretty funny.”
The Gators kicked off the scoring in the top half of the fourth inning with a solo shot to right center from Brendan Lawson to make it a 1-0 ballgame. A couple of batters later, Ethan Surowiec crushed a solo bomb of his own to deep left, making it 2-0.
It looked like Fay picked up a flyout to end the top of the fifth, but Neal, who is a catcher by trait, made a bad read on a flyball, resulting in an RBI double from No. 9 hitter Hayden Yost. Kyle Jones followed with an RBI bloop single to right, making it 4-0 and ending Fay’s day.
Fay tossed 4.2 innings, allowing six hits and five runs, though he did not walk anybody and struck out five on 76 pitches.
Left-hander Matthew Heiberger replaced him, and it looked like he picked up a flyout to right, but Neal misplayed another one, resulting in a two-run triple from Blake Cyr. Heiberger then induced a groundball to shortstop Justin Lebron, but his 18th error of the season brought across another run, making it 7-0 for the Gators.
In the bottom half of the fifth inning, the Crimson Tide got on the board thanks to a sacrifice fly from Neal to cut the deficit to 7-1.
Heiberger came back out for the top of the sixth and loaded the bases but generated an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. Fellow left-hander Ashton Crowther took over for Heiberger to start the seventh inning and served up a two-run double to Surowiec to extend the Gators’ lead to 9-1. Caden McDonald tacked on another run with an RBI double down the third base line. Sam Mitchell replaced Crowther and allowed Karson Bowen to bring across another run with a sacrifice fly to make it 11-1.
With the Crimson Tide an out away from being run-ruled, Neal crushed a two-run homer to make it an 11-3 ballgame.
Left-hander Evan Steckmesser replaced Mitchell for the top of the eighth inning and picked up a strikeout, but surrendered a single to end his night. Owen Sarna came in to relieve Steckmesser and served up a two-run double to McDonald to make it 13-3.
The Crimson Tide went scoreless in the bottom of the eighth inning to put an end to its SEC Tournament run.
Now the Crimson Tide will have to await its fate for the NCAA Tournament. The 16 host sites will be announced on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. CT. If they do not host, they will have to wait to hear until Monday at 11 a.m., with those being announced on ESPN 2.
“At the end of the day, we turn our attention to next week and everything that comes with that,” Vaughn said. “And, so, excited for this journey with this group to continue.”
