Perfection Followed By Another Dud for Alabama Softball

In order to get a top four seed in the SEC Tournament and have double byes, all Alabama needed to do was sweep Ole Miss and hope that an awful Missouri team could take two of three from Arkansas. Oddly enough, Mizzou did their part, but Patrick Murphy said “nah, we don’t need that sweep.”

GAME 1: ALABAMA 9, OLE MISS 0 - 6 innings

The Crimson Tide doled out a good ol’ fashioned ass-whupping on Friday. Montana Fouts tossed her second perfect game of the season and fourth of her career. She struck out six.

Fouts thankfully got some run support in the form of 11 hits and five walks. The nine Tide runs were all scored by different players. Larissa Preuitt had the best game of her young career, going 4-for-4 at the plate with two doubles, two RBI and a stolen base. The freshman’s second double gave Bama a 9-0 advantage and triggered the 8-run mercy rule. Ashley Prange went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run.

Ole Miss had a rotten day in the field. Two errors led to six of Bama’s nine runs to be ruled as unearned. The Rebs went through four different pitchers.

GAME 2: ALABAMA 3, OLE MISS 1

Fouts returned to the circle some 17 hours later and again shouldered the load for her team. In the bottom of the 4th inning, a Reb singled, advanced to second base on a ground out, stole third, and scored on another ground out. It looked like that 1-0 lead would hold up for OM until late in the game.

After such a big win on Friday, the Tide struggled to keep that momentum running into Saturday. The hot-hitting cooled off considerably and the defense let them down with a pair of errors. However, red-hot Jenna Johnson saved the day with a three run jack in the seventh inning.

Bama produced six hits including three in the final frame. Fouts (22-8) struck out nine Rebels and allowed only three singles.

Good for Bama for getting the win, but they were one swing away from defeat.

GAME 3: OLE MISS 5, ALABAMA 4 - Walk Off

Blame The Gut® on this one. Alex Salter got the start and was pitching pretty well. Her only real mistake was giving up a solo home run in the second inning that tied the game at 1-1.

In the top of the 4th inning, Cahalan doubled and later scored on a ground out. Marlie Giles would reach on an error but would be called out for leaving first base early. Hmm. Who coaches first base again?? This is important because the next batter, Kali Heivilin, would hit a home run to make it 3-1 Tide.

In the bottom of the frame, Salter would give up two singles and a wild pitch, but rallied to strike out the last batter. I suppose Murphy had seen enough, because he hooked her after the inning was over. Bama would add another run to their lead on an RBI single by Larissa Preuitt.

Jaala Torrence cruised through the fifth and sixth innings, but The Gut® should have known better than to trust her for the seventh. God bless her but Torrence has not been trustworthy past a couple of innings against power teams. The first two Rebels batters of the seventh hit back-to-back home runs. And my lawd, both of these hits were deep no-doubters to center field.

At this point, Fouts - who probably did not expect to pitch on Sunday - entered the game. After an out and a single, first baseman Emma Broadfoot tried to throw out the lead runner at second base on a ground out and failed, Coaching. A single tied it up and a double ended it. A microcosm of this whole season. Big wins, followed by faceplants.

NOTES

*** Lollipop unicorn rainbow chasers, stop reading here lest ye get your feelings hurt! ***

The RBR softball coverage will call them as we see them and will not change because some reader(s) got upset because someone declared Patrick to not be a Saint. We are not going to blow sunshine up your backsides and pretend everything is all unicorns frolicking in a field of gumdrops and lollipops when it is not. If that is the sort of thing you want, there are plenty of sunshine-pumpers out there willing to fill your pretty little head with that sort of malarkey.

• Ole Miss made the genius move of honoring the Alabama seniors before the Saturday game. Getting in the Tide heads and make them emotional is the best way to slow down that charging bull. The Gut® and the Head Cheerleader have proven they cannot turn that emotion switch off - especially after a big game like a run-rule perfect game rout.
• On Sunday, Savana Sikes’s round-tripper was her first of the season.
• Ally Shipman must have injured herself on Friday because she did not play the next two games.
• Fouts’s perfect game was also her third no-hitter of the season. That stat ties Kelsi Dunne for no-no’s in a single season. Dunne achieved this feat in 2011.
• With 15 strikeouts over the two games, Fouts now has 1,150 in Alabama career whiffs.

1. 1,219 Kelsi Dunne 2008-11
2. 1,150 Montana Fouts 2019-pres.
3. 1,113 Stephanie VanBrakle 2003-06
4. 1,063 Alexis Osorio 2015-18

• Fouts now has 35 career shutouts, three behind second-place Dunne. Her 97th career win, ties her for fourth-place with Stephanie VanBrakle.
• Speaking of VanBrakle, her Memphis Tigers are 8-42. Yikes.
• Alabama is now 65-7 all-time vs. Ole Miss.
• Ole Miss’s Softball Stadium is named The Ole Miss Softball Complex. Fancy. They will be tearing it down and building a new facility.

MVP

• PREUITT: 8 for 11 (.727), 1 RUN, 3 RBI, 3 2B, 1 SB
• HEIVILIN: 3 for 6 (.500), 3 RUNS, 2 RBI, 1 HR, 1 SB

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

The SEC Tournament in Fayetteville, AR. As the 5-seed, Alabama will face the winner of Missouri and Mississippi State at 4pm CT. Win that and they face 4-seed Arkansas in their home stadium. Lovely.

#RollTide #Team27 #BoycottALdotcom