GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 23 Florida fought until the end but was plagued by a five-run fifth inning in a 9-6 loss to No. 18 Alabama at Condron Family Ballpark on Friday night.
 
The Gators (36-19, 14-15 SEC) will look to secure their sixth-consecutive SEC series victory in the rubber match against the Crimson Tide (40-14, 16-13 SEC) on Saturday afternoon. The regular-season finale will also serve as Senior Day.
 
Florida starter Pierce Coppola struck out the side on 14 pitches in the top of the first and Florida promptly produced a two-out run to open a 1-0 lead in the home half. After drawing a one-out walk and swiping second base, Brendan Lawson scored on an RBI single to center field by Brody Donay.
 
Coppola registered three more strikeouts in the second, navigating around a two-out fielding error at third base to produce a zero. The Gators proceeded to extend their edge to 2-0 in the bottom of the frame, as Landon Stripling and Blake Brookins set the table with a leadoff single and double for Bobby Boser, who cashed in via an RBI single to center.
 
Alabama evened the tally with a two-run third, beginning with a sacrifice fly to center field from Justin Lebron to plate Garrett Staton. With two outs, Kade Snell singled to right to bring home Brennen Norton.
 
Tied at two through three frames, Coppola was lifted with two outs in the fourth after striking out his 10th batter of the night. Right-hander Billy Barlow entered in relief and fanned Staton to hold the Crimson Tide in check.
 
In the top of the fifth, Alabama scored five runs to take a 7-2 lead. Snell hit an RBI single to right while Bryce Fowler and Lebron crossed home on a fielding error at shortstop. With two men down and the bases loaded, Brady Neal cleared the bases with a three-run double to left-center to give the Tide a commanding advantage.
 
Right-handers Christian Rodriguez and Blaine Rowland combined to blank Alabama in the sixth, with Rowland notching a pair of strikeouts to strand two. Rowland tossed another clean frame in the seventh, using his third strikeout for the third out. The freshman made it seven-straight batters retired by pitching a perfect top of the eighth.
 
Upon Rowland’s exit, the Tide plated two insurance runs in the ninth to bring the score to 9-2. Richie Bonomolo Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to right field and Will Hodo connected for a solo shot to left.
 
The Gators refused to quit in the bottom of the ninth, rallying for four runs before coming up short at 9-6. Boser doubled down the left-field line to drive in a pair while Lawson cracked a sacrifice fly to deep center to score Stripling. Down to the final out, Ty Evans roped an RBI single to center field before the outburst fizzled with the potential tying run on deck.
 
Barlow (1-4) took the loss, as he was charged with three runs (one earned) in two-thirds of an inning. He did not allow a hit while striking out two against three free passes.
 
Tide starting pitcher Riley Quick (8-2) logged the victory with five innings of two-run ball. He concluded with six hits allowed, two walks and seven strikeouts.
 
Coppola struck out 10 against zero walks in the no-decision. The left-hander allowed two runs on three hits over 3 2/3 innings.
 
NOTABLES

• The Gators have won 16 of their last 21 games including 13 of 17 in SEC play.
• Coppola struck out double-digit batters (10) for the second time this season, coming just shy of his career high of 12 vs. Air Force on Feb. 15.

  • Coppola has now fanned 38 batters in 19 1/3 innings this season for a 17.7 K/9.

• Brookins (DH) made his first-career start and went 1-for-4 with a double.
• Rowland chucked a career-high 2 2/3 scoreless, no-hit innings of relief with three strikeouts against one intentional walk.
• Florida is now 71-60 all-time against Alabama including 36-20 in Gainesville.

  • The Gators are 30-8 overall and 14-3 at home in the series under O’Sullivan.
  • Florida has won 17 of the last 20 and 24 of the previous 28 against Alabama.

• Friday night’s official attendance was 6,199.

FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On Coppola’s outing…
“Yeah, he pitched really good. The only mistake he probably made was trying to go fastball off the plate with Lebron, ran the count to 2-2 with a slider, but we get a sac fly there, and other than that I thought he pitched the ball really well and the positive was we got him up to 67 pitches… The whole goal is that we could get him to a point where we get five innings out of him out of a start. I think that’s great, obviously going to help us moving forward.”
 
On the lineup changes…
“Our hands are tied pretty much, so we’ll see how Justin [Nadeau] feels tomorrow. But we really don’t have any other options right now. But we battled, scored four in the bottom of the ninth against their closer and got his pitch count up to 50, so that should hopefully bode well for us for tomorrow.”
 
On the message to the team for the regular-season finale…
“The goal was to win a series. Whoever wins the game tomorrow is going to have an upper hand potentially of maybe hosting, so it’s a big game for us. Feel great about having Aidan King available to go. Obviously, Jake [Clemente] threw 29 last night, so he’ll be available to go. We still haven’t thrown [Jackson]Barberi. We can get maybe a little bit out of [Luke] McNeillie. We still have enough, but if Aidan can pitch like he did last weekend, at least gives us a really good chance to win the series and that’s the ultimate goal.”

UP NEXT

The Gators and Crimson Tide face off in the decisive finale on Saturday afternoon, scheduled for 4 p.m. on SEC Network+. Rookie phenom Aidan King (5-2, 2.90 ERA) toes the rubber for the Orange & Blue against southpaw Zane Adams for Alabama. (7-2, 4.84 ERA). Four seniors will be honored prior to the game in Barlow, Boser, Coppola and Evans.