It's pitching and hitting. The team is in a bit of a funk. On the pitching side, the starters are putting the team in really bad spots early in the game by giving up runs right out of the gate. Turns into a game of catch up for the hitters. But the hitting since the A&M series has been way too inconsistent... Bama has averaged just 3 runs in their last 5 losses. They're leaving too many guys on base in key spots and taking way too many called 3rd strikes. They also are being a bit stubborn at times and need to take what the defense is giving them... like when Hodo refuses to go against the shift (that's a minor gripe, but if you want to keep an inning going it wouldn't hurt to make some things happen when they give you that much freedom). As for the pitching, they are better than they've showed and someone (starter) needs to step up soon. Quick will get the chance tomorrow. But when they fall behind early, especially on Friday night, it puts a lot of stress on the pen and more often than not, you end up throwing the non-high leverage guys in order to save arms. That usually just leads to more water over the damn.
I will say tonight at least, Bama had some shitty luck early and it sorta spiraled out of control from there. At the plate, they had some really hard hit balls, but right at the fielders (especially LF). A near miss on a defensive catch by Snell in the 1st led to a big inning for State, when a grab would have likely (IMO) kept them scoreless.
