On a cool Friday night in Tuscaloosa it was a marquee matchup of two SEC powerhouses at Rhoads Stadium between the #4 Alabama Crimson Tide and the  #3 Florida Gators.

With both teams battling for position in the SEC, the Florida Gators held on to win 2-0 and take game 1 of the 3 game weekend series.

"It was an incredible night for our fans," Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said. "It gives us the energy and they did that all night long tonight. I know they are gonna bring it tonight and on Sunday as well and we are ready to hopefully deliver."

Alabama would continue to rely on the strong pitching performance of pitcher Montana Fouts. Fouts would open the game strong, but in the top of the second inning Florida would capitalize on a single from shortstop Sarah Longley and the Gators would take a 2-0 lead.

There would be a scary moment in the 4th inning when Alabama shortstop Claire Jenkins would attempt to field a ground ball and go down immediately on the play. Play would stop and Jenkins would be carried off the field into the clubhouse. Coach Murphy did not have any updates on Jenkins' condition after the game.

Alabama and Florida would not score again despite having runners on base throughout the rest of the game. Fouts would finish the game with 11 strikeouts and only allow the two runs to score. Gators pitcher Elizabeth Hightower would finish the game with only 4 strikeouts but would force 10 groundouts.

"We have to pass the bat down to the next person and that is what killed us tonight,"  Murphy said." When you play upper level competition the margin of error is very small. You have to make things happen and we weren't able to do that."

Alabama will look to bounce back against Florida in game 2 of the series tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. at Rhoads Stadium. Keep it tuned into Tide1009.com and Tide 100.9 for coverage of Alabama Softball all season long.

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