The Georgia baseball pitching staff remained hot at Alabama, but the bats went cold in a 3-0 loss in Tuscaloosa in the series finale on Sunday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

“We got quality starts from all three of our starters in the series, and they gave us a chance to win, and today, it was just two pitches that left the park and that was the difference,” UGA coach Scott Stricklin said. “The pitching the entire weekend was very encouraging.

“They won the battle today, and we won the war.”

The No. 14-ranked Bulldogs (28-12, 11-7 SEC) will return to action and try to sweep their season series against Georgia State at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Foley Field. They will then head to Baton Rouge for a weekend series at No. 22-ranked LSU starting at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

The LSU series begins the toughest stretch of Georgia’s conference schedule. UGA will host Vanderbilt and play No. 1-ranked Tennessee in Knoxville in the next two weeks after playing LSU.

The Crimson Tide (24-17, 9-9) hit homers in the fourth and fifth innings on a warm Sunday afternoon to plate their three runs. Georgia was limited to just three hits and three walks in its first loss to Alabama in the last nine matchups.

UGA still claimed its fourth SEC series win of the season on Saturday and shares the No. 3 record in the SEC with No. 19-ranked Auburn.

Georgia also has the No. 8 RPI ranking in the country with the SEC Tournament just four weeks away.

A disappointing effort from the Bulldog bats should not totally overshadow the team’s best defensive weekend against SEC competition this season. The same pitching staff that gave up over 8.9 runs per SEC game going into Tuscaloosa surrendered just five runs all weekend.

It was also UGA’s first SEC series not allowing five runs or more in all three games.

Georgia’s No. 2 starter Liam Sullivan was strong in his third outing since his injury on March 13.

Sullivan, not limited by a pitch count for the first time since then, allowed seven hits for three earned runs with six strikeouts in 5.2 innings. Will Pearson, Davis Rokose, and Max DeJong allowed no hits and no runs in the next 2.1 frames.

Georgia gave up five runs on four homers all weekend. The Crimson Tide hit a pair of solo shots Friday night, were shut out Saturday, and had a solo home run to compliment a two-run bomb on Sunday.

Fernando Gonzalez led the Bulldogs, who had no extra base hits, at the plate on Sunday. The catcher was 1-for-1 hitting with two walks.