Tuscaloosa, Ala. – The Stetson baseball team will continue its most challenging stretch of the 2021 season when the Hatters open a three-game series tonight at No. 23 Alabama.
 
All three games in the series at Sewell-Thomas Stadium will be broadcast on the SEC Network+ with Roger Hoover and former MLB pitcher Lance Cormier on the call of the games. Friday's series opener is scheduled for a 7 p.m. first pitch. Saturday's game is slated for a 3 p.m. start and Sunday's series finale, after daylight saving time kicks in, is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.
 
After opening the season with a 10-game win streak, the Hatters have dropped four straight games to fall to 10-4. Stetson held leads in three of the four games, but were unable to maintain their advantage, dropping a pair of one-run games to South Florida, including one in extra innings, before Wednesday night's loss at No. 5 Florida during which the Hatters held an early 5-0 lead.
 
Alabama is off to an 12-2 start to this season after rolling out to a 16-1 start in 2020 before the pandemic shut the season down. Crimson Tide coach Brad Bohannon is in his fourth season in Tuscaloosa.
 
The Hatters will give the ball to redshirt freshman Nick Durgin to open the series. The right-hander from Melbourne, Fla., took the loss last Friday after surrendering all three runs on eight hits over seven innings against USF in a 3-2 decision. A pair of solo home runs were the big blows in that game. Durgin comes into tonight's game with a 1-1 record and a 2.87 ERA this year.
 
Alabama will counter with junior RHP Tyler Ras, a native of Middletown, N.J. Ras has a 2-0 record with a 4.20 ERA on the year and will be making his third start. He surrendered six runs in three innings of relief against McNeese State on opening day but has since thrown 12.0 innings in two starts, allowing just one run on four hits.
 
Junior left-hander Chris Gonzalez (2-0, 3.22) will make the start for Stetson on Saturday against Alabama junior right-hander Dylan Smith (0-1, 1.56). Sunday's starter for the Hatters has not yet been determined. Whoever gets the ball will square off against sophomore left-hander Antoine Jean (1-0, 1.42)
 
Series Notes

• Stetson is 1-2 all-time against Alabama. The schools first met for a pair of games in DeLand during the 1950 season, splitting the pair. They also faced off once in the 1996 NCAA Regional in Tuscaloosa, with Alabama taking a 3-1 win.
• The only current SEC schools Stetson has never faced on the diamond are the two newest members of the league, Texas A&M and Missouri.
• Alabama has just one player on its roster from the state of Florida. Junior RHP Hunter Ruth attended the same high school, Buchholz in Gainesville, as Stetson graduate outfielder Andrew MacNeil. Ruth was a year behind MacNeil and started his career at the University of Florida where he was a teammate of current Stetson pitcher Nick Long.
• With the sweep of UNA earlier this season, Stetson improved to 82-37 all-time against teams from the state of Alabama.
• This is not the first trip to Tuscaloosa for Hernen Sardinas. He played against Alabama during the 2019 season while at Maine. He had one hit and struck out three times in five at bats in a 16-0 Alabama win on March 19. 

Hatters Notes

• Andrew MacNeil helped Stetson jump out to an early 5-0 lead on Wednesday night in Gainesville, recording a two-run triple in his 500th career at bat for the Hatters. MacNeil was also hit by a pitch in the game, the 40th time that has happened in his Stetson career. MacNeil is tied for 10th among all active players in times hit by a pitch. MacNeil's 18 runs scored so far this year ranks fifth in Division I.
• Redshirt junior Nick DiPonzio made his first appearance in 10 days on Wednesday, and delivered a two-run double in his first at bat back in the lineup. He has been nursing a sore hamstring.
• Redshirt junior Garner Spoljaric allowed his first runs in a Stetson uniform on Wednesday after holding opponents scoreless in the first 10 outings of his career.
• Banks Griffith reached base all five times he came to the plate in the Florida game. He had a pair of singles, raising his season batting average to .562, and walked three times.
• Brandon Hylton tied his career-high with three hits in the game. Hylton also had three hits against Hartford on February 22, 2020. Both DiPonzio and Hylton extended modest hitting streaks to eight games, matching the longest of the year for any Stetson player.
• Both Hernen Sardinas and Jorge Arenas extended on-base streaks in the Florida game. Sardinas has reached base safely in every game this year for Stetson while Arenas ran his streak to 11 consecutive games. Hylton has also reached in 10 straight games.
• Freshman Jonathan Velazquez was the only Stetson pitcher to come away from the game in Gainesville unscathed. Velazquez retired all six batters he faced in his two innings of work. It was just the second outing of his career.
• Sardinas is 12th on the NCAA active players list in career hits with 207. He is also fourth among all active players in total bases (340) and 24th in RBI (117). Jorge Arenas is right behind Sardinas, ranked 26th in the NCAA among all active players with 115 career RBI.

 
About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program has a vision of developing a culture of champions athletically, academically and within the community. This vision is accomplished through a mission of recruiting and developing student-athletes, coaches and staff, creating a culture of champions, within and outside of competition. The department operates with five core values: Championship Culture, Integrity, Excellence, Pride/Tradition and Leadership. To learn more about the Vision, Mission and Core Values for Stetson Athletics, visit GoHatters.com and click on Mission Statement under the Inside Athletics tab.