Alabama baseball’s postseason nightmare continues once more as the Crimson Tide’s poor performance at the plate resulted in a 4-0 loss to the Stetson Hatters to end its season in the Tallahassee Regional.

Following the loss, first year head coach Rob Vaughn wrapped up his debut season with the Crimson Tide with a 33-24 record overall, and a 13-17 record in the SEC.

From the start, Alabama’s performance wasn’t pretty. Despite loading the bases to kick off the game in the top of the first inning, an eventual strikeout from senior TJ McCants ended the inning with three runners left on base.

Soon after, stranding runners seemed to become a trend throughout the Crimson Tide lineup all day long and it never seemed to recover.

Taking the mound for Alabama was junior righty Ben Hess who had been on a great stretch throughout his last few starts. Unfortunately for Hess, the offensive attack from his teammates wasn’t there and the veteran pitcher suffered the loss despite his eight strikeouts throughout the afternoon.

Meanwhile the Crimson Tide struggled to get things going at the dish, Stetson was able to capitalize on Alabama’s missed opportunity and made an impact on the scoreboard in the bottom half of the first inning, via a leadoff solo home run by freshman Kyle Jones.

Once more, the Hatters appeared to find more success at the plate as the game went on. In the third frame, Stetson led off the inning with a double, immediately followed by a bunt single to put two runners on. Though there was some pressure on the base pads, Hess was able to keep his composure and only surrendered one run in the inning as Stetson claimed a 2-0 lead.

Still, Alabama struggled to respond to the deficit on the scoreboard, as it proceeded to strand a total of four runners on base across the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings.

To add insult to injury, the Hatters were able to tack on two more runs in the middle innings to increase the lead to four runs, burying the Crimson Tide deeper and deeper into the hole it dug itself.

Facing a major deficit with only a few opportunities remaining to keep its season alive, Vaughn’s squad was ultimately not able to get back on track and suffered its second shutout loss of the season; it’s first since April 6 against the Kentucky Wildcats.

Following the performance on Saturday, Alabama’s 2023-24 campaign has come to a close under its new coaching staff.