Softball | Toppling the Tigers

"2 outs...SO WHAT"

(photo credits: Hannah Saad)

Etched into Rhoads Stadium’s right-field foul pole is a saying that’s become a motto for Alabama softball: “2 outs… so what.” The saying rang true for the Crimson Tide’s top-10 sweep of the No. 9 Louisiana State University Tigers.

Game 1:

Alabama saw its first of eight ranked opponents this weekend: No. 9 LSU. The Alabama faithful were able to leave Rhoads Stadium with smiles on their faces after the team’s first win over the Tigers, 5–2.

Alabama kept its season trend of scoring first alive Saturday night, Feb. 20, as it took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first due to a two-out double down the left field line from freshman Bailey Dowling. The highly ranked recruit out of Illinois not only made an impact with her bat, but also defensively as she went for the lead outs instead of the sure ones. In the final frame with LSU threatening to score she perfectly fielded a ball in a play that head coach Patrick Murphy has witnessed “games lost on that exact play.”

“Most kids would have gone to first just to get the sure outs,” Murphy said. “She’s just very athletic and has great body awareness.”

This was Alabama’s third straight game with double-digit hits, 12, but of the five runs scored only two were earned, as LSU committed a season-high four errors. The second earned run was driven in by senior Maddie Morgan to score freshman Kat Grill in another two-out RBI situation. The Crimson Tide were 5-for-17 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-3 with the bases loaded.

“It’s the hardest thing [hit with runners in scoring position] to do,” Murphy said. “Maddie Morgan got one in the bottom of the sixth.”

Sophomore Lexi Kilfoyl (4-0) got the start and pitched a solid complete game, allowed one walk and one earned run on six hits. But the seventh inning may have raised the heart rate of Alabama fans. Last season, Kilfoyl gave up go-ahead runs three times in the seventh inning, and LSU threatened to do the same. However, Kilfoyl did not let last year’s mistakes come to fruition, and she rolled two ground balls to the defense, one of the being Dowling’s, and the plays were made.

“It was a big moment for her,” graduate student Claire Jenkins said. “For her to just be able to find a way to shut them down should give her a lot of confidence for games to be played.”

Kilfoyl did what LSU’s previous opponents could not do, keep the Tigers in the ballpark. LSU is second in the Southeastern Conference in home runs, 12, and boasts the conference home run leader in Amanda Doyle. Kilfoyl got the better of Doyle as she went 0-for-3 at the plate.

“I don’t think Kilfoyl pitched her best game, but she gave us enough to beat a very good team,” Murphy said.

Game 2:

One may have thought Sunday, Feb. 21, afternoon’s contest between Alabama (8-0) and LSU (5-3) would be a pitchers duel as both the Crimson Tide and Tigers started its ace in Montana Fouts (4-0; 1.27 ERA) and Shelby Wickersham (1-1, 6.79 ERA). But the afternoon did not fare that way as a total of 18 runs were scored and three home runs were hit in a 13-5 run-rule Alabama win to cap off the Easton Bama Bash.

“I’m just really proud of our team and coaching staff,” head coach Patrick Murphy said. “It’s been a long time since we run-ruled them [LSU].”

In Saturday’s contest against the Tigers, the Crimson Tide left 11 runners on base and Murphy stated two-out RBIs are some of the hardest things to come by in both baseball and softball. However, Alabama made it look easy on Sunday as all 13 of its runs came with two outs. The Alabama offense put together its fourth straight double-digit hit performance, 12, and went 8-for-13 with runners in scoring position, a .615 average.

“I think they were a little bit looser and really zoned in at the plate,” Murphy said. “[I] couldn’t be more proud of that.”

In the win, Alabama faced its first deficit of the season as LSU scored a run in the top of the first, but was quickly erased a three-run bottom of the first highlighted by a two-run home run from freshman Bailey Dowling.

LSU had tied the game in both the top half of the second and fourth innings and looked to have a solid chance to do it once more in the fifth as its top of the lineup stepped to the plate. But Dowling flashed the leather, charged and cleanly snagged a short hop ground ball to cut down LSU’s Aliyah Andrews, who is considered one of the fastest players in the nation, for the first out of the inning. Dowling followed that play with a diving catch for the second out.

“I’m serious, there’s not very many kids that could make that [first] play,” Murphy said. “That was a huge rally killer for sure.”

Tow added to her stellar weekend at the plate with three hits, two of which came with the bases loaded. Like Dowling, Tow finished the game with five RBIs and now carries the team-leading 12. Tow finished the weekend with a .789 batting average, nine RBIs and 11 hits, which resulted in her named as the MVP of the Easton Bama Bash.

Part of the offensive success was due to the ability to turn the lineup over back to the top because of the success of graduate student Elissa Brown in the nine spot. Brown went 1-for-2 at the plate with a walk and motored across home plate three times. In games where Brown scores a run, the team's record is 91–10.

“My ultimate goal is to get on base and it doesn’t matter how,” Brown said. “[I’m] trusting my ability, and I think that’s really helping.”

Entering this game, Fouts carried a 1.92 ERA against opponents ranked in the top 10, but in her fourth start of the season she allowed four earned runs and gave up her first home runs of the season. Nonetheless, Fouts picked up the win and remains undefeated on the season. Murphy said that Fouts would likely give herself a “C performance” on the day. Fouts appeared to settle in over the course of the game, as only two batters reached base after the second inning.

Alabama softball resumes action on Wednesday against UAB at 6 p.m. in Rhoads Stadium.