Alabama’s Georgie Salem extended his hit streak to 10 games Wednesday night but the Crimson Tide was unable to mount a rally against the South Alabama Jaguars after a disastrous fourth-inning led to a 8-2 loss.

Alabama (23-15, 8-7 SEC) was hoping to make a statement against the 21st-ranked Jaguars (28-10, 16-2 Sun Belt) heading into this weekend’s series against Texas A&M but lost the second of two midweek games after knocking off Troy on Tuesday evening.

“Their (South Alabama) a good team, they played extremely well,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. “Solid team, solid offense, got really good pitching and made some really nice defensive plays.”

“Obviously, we’re disappointed tonight but you got to look at the big picture. We’re right in the middle of this league and we’ll rebound tomorrow and work to control the areas of the game that we can.”

Alabama had no problems producing hits against the Jaguars but were unable to turn those hits into runs, leaving nine runners stranded on base throughout the contest. Salem extended his hit-streak but would happily have traded it for the win.

“I’m not too concerned with a hit streak,” Salem said. “I care more about winning the game but I try to do whatever I can to help my teammates.”

Alabama got on the scoreboard first off an Chandler Avant RBI single in the bottom of the third inning but the Tide allowed eight runs to cross before being able to push another run across in the eighth inning.

Freshman Kyle Cameron made his first career start for the Crimson Tide and pitched well through the first three innings, allowing only one hit, before getting into a jam in the fourth which lead to seven hits and five runs being scored before the Alabama defense stopped the bleeding.

Cameron faced one batter in the top of the fifth, who offered up a triple, before being pulled for senior Ray Castillo.

Castillo, along with sophomore Zach Rogers and junior Colton Freeman, allowed only two hits and two earned runs between them during the course of the final five innings.

Gaspard said the team is confident, maybe a little irritable after the game, and will be focused on the challenge Texas A&M will present this weekend.

“What this offense needs is for somebody to split a gap in a big moment,” he said. “I think that would unlock everybody and we can become that offense I know we can be.”