HOOVER, Ala. — Rain slightly delayed Alabama baseball's start in this week’s SEC Tournament, but that did little to stop the Crimson Tide’s red-hot run. The No. 9 seed Crimson Tide improved its winning streak to six games Tuesday night, taking down No. 8 seed Kentucky, 4-0, in a first-round elimination game inside Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

Alabama (39-17) advances to the double-elimination portion of the tournament and will face No. 1 seed Florida (42-24) on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. CT.

Here are a few takeaways from Tuesday night’s game.

A laser show from Andrew Pinckney helped Alabama take an early advantage. The right fielder flashed his power both in the field and at the plate, preventing a run with a rocket throw to home in the bottom of the second inning before breaking a scoreless tie by smacking a two-run home run in the top of the fourth.

Kentucky looked as though it would strike first as Devin Burkes attempted to tag up from third on a deep fly ball to right field with one out in the bottom of the second inning.

Pinckney had other plans.

Catching the ball roughly 20 feet in front of the warning track, the right fielder fired a strike to catcher Mac Guscette, who applied the tag on Burkes at the plate to end the inning. Kentucky challenged the play, but the call was confirmed.

"You can tell they were trying to scrap for runs," Pinckney said of the play. "Everyone pretty much knew he was going to go, and my teammates were yelling. I just wanted to make a good throw, and I did."

The play marked Pinckney’s second outfield assist in as many games as he also helped gun down a runner at home during Alabama’s 5-1 victory over Ole Miss last Saturday. The redshirt junior now has five outfield assists on the year, matching his total from last season.

Next came Pinckney’s offensive heroics as he lined the first pitch he saw in the top of the fourth over the fence in right field to put Alabama up 2-0. The homer was Pinckney’s 16th of the season and fifth in the last six games.

Hunter Furtado picked a perfect time for his best outing of the season. The junior left-hander earned the win, giving up two hits and a pair of walks while striking out two batters over five scoreless innings. It marked his first win of the year and his longest outing of the season.

Following the game, Alabama interim manager Jason Jackson said he was initially hoping for just two or three innings from Furtado but said it was nice to "get a little more than we bargained for" from the starter.

"I love having the ball. I love starting games," Furtado said. "It's something I've been comfortable doing the past two summers in the Cape. Just having JJ trust me with the ball in a big game like this, I just had confidence and knew I was going to give my best out there today."

Kentucky placed a runner in scoring position in each of the first three innings, but Furtado was able to navigate his way out of trouble every time. The Wildcats finished the night 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position while stranding seven batters on base.

"I just took it one batter at a time," Furtado said. "I knew I had great guys behind me. I thought the biggest play of the game was when Pinckney threw that guy out because we had one out at the time, and he got the ball and threw the guy out. Once that happened, I just knew that when there were guys in scoring position, all I had to do was get the next guy out."

Following Furtado's strong outing, Alabama's bullpen came up big to help seal the victory. Kade Woods pitched two scoreless innings before handing the ball over to Alton Davis, who did the same, earning his eighth save of the season.

Alabama’s six-game winning streak is its longest since the beginning of conference play. The Crimson Tide has outscored its opponents 38-5 over that span.

Alabama is now 9-2 under Jackson following Brad Bohannon’s firing on May 4. The Tide is now on the verge of its first 40-win season since 2010 when it finished 42-25 while advancing to an NCAA super regional against Clemson.

"We're not really worried about any adversity or anything," Pinckney said. "We're just playing with no pressure, playing for the guy beside us, just taking everything a pitch at a time. When you do that, you play as a team and good things happen. We're just happy to be playing tomorrow.

Tuesday’s win will certainly help Alabama as it looks to host its first regional since 2006. Heading into the day, D1Baseball projected the Crimson Tide to host a regional that included Southern Miss, Arizona State and Samford. Meanwhile, Baseball America had Alabama as the No. 2 seed in Miami’s regional along with TCU and Loyola Marymount.

After surviving the single-elimination round of the SEC Tournament, Alabama will have multiple opportunities to add to its resume this week. Another win would go a long way toward locking up a chance to host. That being said, the way Alabama is playing, it could make a deep run this week.

"The committee's got a tough job to do," Jackson said when asked if his team had done enough already to host a regional. "There's so many good teams, and they're so many teams that have had great seasons. I felt like going in that we were in a good position with 16 [SEC wins], so I hope that 17 really kind of puts us over the edge."