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After a comeback win, both in scoring and in pure will, in Florida baseball’s series opener against the Alabama Crimson Tide, fans stuck it out to see if the Gators could pull off another rally. It wasn’t meant to be as the UF offense went stagnant and was unable to make up for a five-run fifth inning.

No. 23 Florida (36-19, 14-15 SEC) fell to No. 18 Alabama (40-14, 16-13 SEC) 9-6 Friday night.

“We have enough… we at least have a chance to go and win the series,” said Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan. “That’s the ultimate goal.”

Left-hander Pierce Coppola got his sixth start of the year for Florida. He came out hot, striking out the first frame in just 14 pitches. The Gators bats kept it rolling, scoring a run thanks to an RBI single from catcher Brody Donay. Florida stranded the bases loaded and left the first inning up 1-0.

Coppola nearly sat the side in order again in the top of the second before third baseman Brendan Lawson’s third error of the weekend allowed a runner to reach first before Coppola struck out his sixth batter of the day. Florida added a second in the bottom frame after shortstop Bobby Boser scored Landon Stripling on an RBI single.

Alabama squared things up on a sacrifice fly and an RBI single in the top third as Coppola’s momentum began to waver. The lefty struck out his eighth batter to end the frame, and the Gators went 1-2-3 through the bottom half to keep the scored tied, 2-2, after three innings.

Coppola tossed his tenth strikeout of the game before he was pulled in favor of Billy Barlow after 4.2 innings. The junior right-hander punched the third out to keep it 2-2 through four frames.

“Honestly I didn’t feel that great, I felt a little slow today,” Coppola said. “But I’ll take it.”

“He pitched really good,” O’Sullivan said. “The positive is we got him up to 67 pitches. If we can get to the point where we can get five innings out of him, that would be great.”

Barlow returned for the fifth and walked the bases loaded with one out, forcing O’Sullivan to retrieve him from the mound and call upon redshirt freshman Christian Rodriguez. He nearly forced a double play to end the inning, but Boser fumbled the ball and allowed two runs to score safely. The righty then hit a batter to load the bases before giving up a three-run double.

“The wheels fell off,” O’Sullivan said. “I don’t know… it just happened so quickly.”

Rodriguez punched the third out, and Florida’s offense went scoreless in the bottom half to end a disastrous fifth inning which saw the Gators down 7-2.

Florida’s offense remained stagnant into the final inning down 7-2. Caden McDonald came in for Rowland, who finished with no hits or runs, one walk and three strikeouts in 2.2 innings. McDonald got through the top half after allowing a sacrifice fly and a solo home run, giving the Gators three outs to make up seven runs.

“[Rowland] threw the ball really good,” O’Sullivan said. “We got him out of there because we want to use him tomorrow too.”

The Gators picked up four runs in the bottom half of the ninth inning but couldn’t fill in the rest of the gap, setting up a series finale rubber match 4:00 p.m. Saturday for senior day.