Alabama Heads to Gainesville to Meet Gators

With nine SEC games remaining in the regular season, each one becomes crucial for teams trying to make it into the eight team SEC Tournament later this month. Every year a team either makes or misses the tournament by one game. With the exception of Arkansas and Vanderbilt (who have good enough records to relax) that leaves 10 teams fighting it out for 6 spots. That makes this weekend's three game series between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida Gators in Gainesville, FL a big one.

Alabama (26-20, 10-11) has won 4 of its last 6 games including last weekend's series win over #4 South Carolina. Alabama is also swinging the bats as well as they have all year scoring 45 runs in its last four wins with 23 of those coming in its last two games. The Tide pitching staff, now very thin with former Saturday starter Bernard Robert being booted off the club, has received a much needed week of rest. If Jim Wells stays with the same weekend rotation as he did against the Gamecocks that would send sophomore Tommy Hunter (5-3, 3.67 ERA) to the hill on Friday night, sophomore Miers Quigley (4-4, 3.72) to the hill on Saturday, and possibly Austin Hyatt (4-1, 3.53) or another Tide arm on Sunday.

Florida (23-23, 10-11) comes into the series with an identical SEC record with Alabama, but is headed in another direction as they were swept last weekend at Vandy. UF is led by senior star and Golden Spikes Award nominee Matt LaPorta. LaPorta currently has a 20 game hit streak and is hitting .472 with 12 HR, 29 RBI, and 16 walks. He is the SEC's version of Barry Bonds, and it seems like he has been at Florida since 1958. Florida is a team that jumped out of the gates early in conference play but is stumbling to the finish, primarily due to a shaky pitching staff. The Gators were blown out in each of their games last weekend at Vanderbilt. The Gators weekend rotation is projected to be Kyle Mullaney (2-1, 5.93 ERA) on Friday night. Bryan Augestein (4-5, 6.35) on Saturday, with Billy Bullock (2-5, 5.09) taking the hill for the Gators on Sunday.

This should be a very entertaining series, but for the Tide to win it they need good starting pitching. The Gators are always big and strong, play in a smaller park, and try to beat you with the long ball. If the Alabama pitching staff can run together multiple good starts and the bats continue to roll as they are, Alabama should win this series.

Florida's official athletic website has a preview of the game with a statistical breakdown here: Bama-UF Preview