Alabama Blows Another Big Lead, Falls 7–6 to Florida in Series Opener
Tough night for Alabama baseball. The No. 18 Crimson Tide jumped out to a five-run lead Thursday night at No. 23 Florida—only to see it slip away in a 7–6 loss. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s not the first time this month Bama’s coughed up a late lead.
Things started hot for the Tide. Richie Bonomolo Jr. and Justin Lebron both launched two-run homers early, and Jason Torres added an RBI single in the third to make it 5–0. But after that? Just one more run the rest of the way.
Lebron now leads the team with 18 homers, but he also struck out four times in the game—earning the dreaded “golden sombrero.”
Florida’s night started rough too. Their catcher, Luke Heyman, took a pitch to the wrist in the first and left the game in a sling. Second baseman Justin Nadeau also exited early, forcing Blake Brookins to give up his redshirt to step in. That said, the patchwork lineup got the job done.
After a wild pitch let Landon Stripling score in the fourth, things unraveled for Alabama in the fifth. A brutal error by Garrett Staton with two outs opened the floodgates—Florida scored three runs and chased starter Tyler Fay, even though only one of those runs was earned.
Alabama briefly pulled back ahead in the sixth thanks to a Gator throwing error, but it didn’t last. Florida’s Brody Donay, filling in at catcher, crushed a go-ahead homer in the seventh off JT Blackwood, who came in with a sky-high SEC ERA.
The Gators didn’t look back. Jake Clemente shut Alabama down over the final two innings, stranding two runners in the eighth and freezing the Tide’s top hitters in the ninth.
Coach Jason Jackson summed it up: “We had some really good at-bats early… but a couple of free passes hurt us and obviously the homer by Donay in the seventh.”
Alabama’s trend of collapsing in series openers continues—they’ve only won one since March. Had they held on Thursday (and back on May 4 vs. Vandy), they’d likely be in solid NCAA Tournament hosting position right now. Instead, they’ll try to bounce back in Game 2 on Friday at 5:30 p.m. CT.
