The Crimson Tide has not gotten long starts from its pitchers in recent weekend games. The margin of error for a winning baseball team in the SEC is slim to none. Any issues are likely to stand out, and for No. 12 Alabama, a recent point of concern has been perhaps the one defensive area a team hoping to go far in the postseason must have sorted: starting pitching.Since (and including) last weekend’s series loss at No. 11 Auburn, the Crimson Tide (28-7, 7-6 SEC) has not had a starter go beyond the fifth inning. The last man to do it was, ironically, the one who may have just lost his spot in the rotation: Bobby Alcock went six-plus frames against Oklahoma on March 29.

The most recent Alabama starter to even throw a baseball in a fifth inning before Friday was Aeden Finateri on March 30. He is not currently in the regular weekend mix. On Friday, the Crimson Tide lost 13-3 to Mississippi State in eight innings, and starter Zane Adams went four innings with seven runs.

“We need more length. We need to get out of the gate a little better,” Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn said postgame. “We’ve gotta be more competitive in the top of the first coming out. We’ve just gotta be crisper. It’s not fun chasing three or four [runs].”

Adams, the team’s Friday night ace this season, has the kind of pitch profile and demeanor consistent with someone who will play pro baseball in the future. The first inning hasn’t been his best since the season opener, and he gave up three runs in that frame against the Bulldogs.

Friday’s outing followed an April 5 start in Auburn where he left an eventual run-rule loss with nobody out in the bottom of the second (six runs were charged to him). In Alcock’s start against Auburn, he retired one batter, the leadoff man; he had four runs on his ledger in an eventual loss.

“He’s [Adams] had back-to-back tough starts,” Vaughn said Friday. “When he missed, they [Mississippi State’s pitchers] didn’t… I love that kid. He works his butt off. He’s gonna continue getting better. This is what it is. This is college baseball at a really high level.”

Alcock was not listed among the team’s probables in the starting pitching department prior to the Mississippi State series. The best start of the 2025 campaign by a Crimson Tide pitcher still belongs to him, a seven-inning shutout afternoon on the road against then-No. 19 Texas A&M on March 16.

The pitcher who went the longest of the weekend starters during that Auburn series, Riley Quick, went for four innings hours prior to Alcock’s showing. He pitches Saturday afternoon (2 p.m. CT start time). Finateri got the start on Tuesday against No. 23 Southern Miss, but tossed 28 pitches in total and could go later this weekend.

The Oklahoma series did not feature Quick, who was recovering from a blood blister which gave him issue during a short start in a prior series defeat against then-No. 1 Tennessee. He has the lowest earned run average, 3.42, of the regular weekend pitchers this spring.

The Crimson Tide is 1-3 overall in its most recent four league games, still above .500 in the SEC but not by as much as it was when it started 6-3 in that category. Losing to the Bulldogs by way of a sweep would place Alabama’s conference record at 7-8.

In order for a squad to win SEC games and take weekend series, the starter needs to play a factor, in the sense that they must eat innings and minimize runs. No coach in the conference relishes pulling a weekend starter early. For any college baseball team to perform in the postseason, it has to have length and effectiveness from whomever gets the ball first on a given day.