Softball | Alabama sweeps Liberty

First inning offense leads to Liberty sweep

(photo credits: Hannah Saad)

Game 1

No. 6 Alabama softball (5-0) used a first inning two-out offensive surge and a strong relief appearance from sophomore Lexi Kilfoyl to capture a Friday afternoon, Feb. 19, win over the Liberty Flames (6-1), 6-3.

An early 0-0 game came to an end as freshman Bailey Dowling roped a two-out RBI single to score senior K.B. Sides. Senior Kaylee Tow and sophomore Jenna Johnson followed that up with each of their own RBI hits to give the Crimson Tide an early 3-0 advantage. Alabama went into the second frame with a 4-0 advantage due to a Liberty error, which proved to be all Alabama would need.

“It started to look like we weren’t going to get anything in the first inning, and then boom — we put four hits up,” head coach Patrick Murphy said.

Graduate student Alexis Mack managed a two-out RBI single of her own in the bottom of the fourth inning to score graduate student Elissa Brown and Johnson. Brown and Johnson’s scores put Alabama up 6–3, which proved to be the final.

The team’s chase to break the 2011 record of 29.2 scoreless innings came to an end in the top of the third as Liberty’s Savannah Channell sent a home run over the left field fence off of graduate student Sarah Cornell. Alabama’s scoreless streak finished at 26.1 innings, which is the second-longest streak in program history.

Kilfoyl moved to 3-0 on the season after she came in to relieve Cornell in the top of the fourth with the bases loaded. She didn’t allow a single hit and collected four strikeouts in the innings she played.

“Kilfoyl has continued to improve every year,” Murphy said. “Her ball has a lot of movement on it, which makes it really hard to hit.”

Game 2

Alabama topped its first-inning 4-0 offensive performance from Friday night on Saturday, Feb. 20, with a 6-0 frame highlighted by a 3-run home run off the bat of graduate student Claire Jenkins on her senior day. The Crimson Tide defeated the Flames 8-1 to improve to 6-0 on the season.

“It was probably one of my favorite ones,” Jenkins said. “I felt the love and energy from everyone around me.”

Senior Kaylee Tow played a part in Alabama’s first-inning performance as she drove in the first two runs of the game with a single through the right side. Tow added her third RBI of the day, and sixth of the season with a solo home run in the fifth inning to extend the Crimson Tide’s lead to 7-1. Tow carried a .833 batting average in its double header against Liberty.

“She had another really good game today,” Murphy said. “She’s been swinging early in the count, and it has been a really good thing.”

Senior Maddie Morgan started her first game of the season and gave the coaching staff a reason to keep her in the starting lineup. Morgan was 2-for-3 on the day and nearly had a home run in the bottom of the sixth, which would have given Alabama the run-rule win if she wasn’t robbed by Liberty’s Madison Via out in right field.

“When she gets her opportunity, she will take advantage of it,” Murphy said.

Junior Montana Fouts (3-0) made her third start of the season and dominated, just as she did in her previous two starts. Fouts gave up four hits and no earned runs through six innings of work and tallied 13 strikeouts on the day. This game marked Fouts’ second-straight game with double-digit strikeouts.