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A day after rattling Florida for three runs in Game 1 of the Gainsville Super Regional, the Alabama softball team was unable to shake the Gators Friday night. The Crimson Tide failed to get anything going against Delanie Gourley, allowing the Florida starter to pitch a complete-game shutout in a 2-0 victory for the Gators to force a Game 3.

If the Tide is going to advance to its fourth straight Women's College World Series it will have to wait until Saturday, as Alabama (46-17) and Florida (54-8) will square off at 4 p.m. CT in a winner-take-all series finale with a trip to Oklahoma City on the line.

Alabama once again pitched well enough to win Friday night, but the Tide's continued struggles at the plate wasted a solid outing from starter Sydney Littlejohn (17-9). The senior was dominant in the circle, pitching all seven innings while giving up two earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts. However, her only mistake proved costly as a two-out, two-run home run from Florida left fielder Amanda Lorenz in the top of the third proved to be the game’s deciding moment.

Lorenz’s home run broke a streak of 30 consecutive scoreless innings for Alabama dating back to the third inning of its NCAA Tournament opener against Albany.

The two-run cushion was all Gourley (21-4) would need. The 5-foot-4 left-hander kept her composure, giving up just four hits while striking out eight batters on the night. After capitalizing on back-to-back throwing errors from Kelly Barnhill to beat the Gators 3-0 in Game 1, it appeared Alabama would once again force Florida into early blunders Friday.

After Elissa Brown reached on a single in the bottom of the first, Florida catcher Janell Wheaton bounced a ball off Bailey Hemphill’s back on a throw to first sending Brown to third and leaving Hemphill safe. However, Hemphill was called out for runner’s interference and Brown was forced to return to first. The inning would end on another base-running blunder as Brown collided with Florida third baseman Jaimie Hoover for another interference call.

Alabama brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh as Rachel Bobo reached on a fielding error with two outs. However, leadoff batter Demi Turner was unable to keep the inning alive, grounding out to Gourley to end the game.

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