No. 2 Alabama Softball Uses Late Heroics To Claim Series Victory Over Kentucky
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- A contest that started quietly ended in pandemonium as No. 2 Alabama softball took a 5-4 walk-off win over Kentucky to win the program's sixth consecutive SEC series.
"It was a helluva game between two good teams," Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said. "It's the SEC softball on a Saturday. One team's trying to win a series, and one team's trying to fight for postseason, and everybody got their money's worth. Great, great entertainment and a really good game."
The Crimson Tide offense started slowly, generating only two singles and drawing one walk for three baserunners through the first four frames. Alabama broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth inning as Lauren Johnson got on base with a single and Alexis Pupillo brought her home with her 15th home run of the season to take a 2-0 lead.
"Just trying to swing early in the count. She got a lot of 0-2, 1-2s, and then made us fish or take," Murphy said on the offensive adjustment. "We needed to be a little bit more aggressive, and Pupillo did the job on the home run, and then they got four hits in an inning, and you look up, and they scored three runs. They had one hit before that, but they strung them together, which we had not done, and then we kind of duplicated that in the seventh."
Two runs could've been enough as freshman pitcher Vic Moten appeared dominant through five frames. Unfortunately, the softball gods had other ideas, and Kentucky dug deep, touching up Moten for the Wildcats' first three runs of the weekend in the sixth inning. Moten gave up back-to-back singles to start the frame, as Ella Emmert and Emory Donaldson got on board. The freshman pitcher dug in and struck out Carly Sleeman for her fourth and final strikeout of the day, but Kentucky kept digging. Allie Blum poked a single past Brooke Wells at first base to score a pinch runner and end Moten's afternoon after 5.1 innings with three runs allowed off four hits. Peyton Plotts singled off Jocelyn Briski, bringing in the remaining two runs and putting the Wildcats in front in Rhoads Stadium.
Alabama, trailing for the first time this weekend against the last-place team in the SEC, failed to respond in the home half of the sixth inning and fell into an even deeper hole in the seventh as Briski gave up a leadoff home run to Maddy Clark before settling in and forcing three straight outs. Briski finished her day with 1.2 innings pitched, one earned run allowed on two hits, but went into the dugout after the seventh inning needing some help from the Alabama offense.
Crimson Tide shortstop Salen Hawkins set the tone, smacking a double to the centerfield fence to lead off the seventh inning. Johnson grounded out, but Pupillo stayed patient after her home run and drew a walk to get the tying run on base. Wells kept the party going with a single to score Hawkins to ramp up the pressure. Ambrey Taylor turned it up even higher using strong plate discipline to draw a four-pitch walk.
Marlie Giles took it to the next decibel as her single brought in the game-tying run after some controversy. Kentucky right fielder Peyton Plotts made a diving attempt at Giles' hit and was originally given credit for a catch, but was overturned after the replay clearly showed the ball bounced into Plotts' glove.
"Crazy. We said it in the dugout, it doesn't matter if it's the first inning, the fourth, or the seventh, that's why you get seven innings to score," Murphy said. "So you get 21 outs, we have three left, let's take advantage of all three. We needed two and people came through and they passed the baton down. That's the first time this year, I think, we've come from behind in the last inning. It was a really good inning."
Jena Young struck out next, giving Kentucky two outs and ideas for extra innings, but those were quickly ended as centerfielder Audrey Vandagriff hit a roller into the infield on her second pitch. Vandagriff beat the throw, Gerritt Griggs scored from third as a pinch runner, and the stadium erupted in celebration.
"There was never a doubt in our mind that we weren't going to walk the game off, that we weren't going to win," Vandagriff said. "But I knew at that moment, when Marlie hit that ball, whether she caught it or she didn't catch it, we had JY [Jena Young] up, who's the reigning SEC Player of the Week, and then we had me. I'd take JY over and over again. Whoever was up at that moment, I had full faith in. I told JY right before she stepped in the box, 'this is why you come to Alabama.'"
The Crimson Tide looks for the program's third SEC series sweep with game three on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. CT.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/alabama as No. 2 Alabama Softball Uses Late Heroics To Claim Series Victory Over Kentucky.
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