The SEC Opening Series Winning Week That Was For Alabama Softball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama coach Patrick Murphy saw his Team 24 open up its SEC softball schedule at home with a series win over No. 20/20 Arkansas. Both wins, Saturday and Sunday both came via the run rule.
Specifically, No. 9/13 Alabama lost 1-0 Friday night but then bounced back with decisive 10-2 and 9-1 victories.
The offensive hero for the weekend was again junior KB Sides, who is one of, if not the hottest hitters in the college game right now. Sides went 7-for-9 in the three games for a .778 clip. She has upped her season average to .492.
Graduate transfer Alexis Mack had a .600 average against the Razorbacks including a career high three RBI’s Sunday that all came on a bases-clearing triple. Murphy has moved Mack from leadoff to No. 2 in the order behind Skylar Wallace and it paid off.
“It takes a little pressure of her,” Murphy said of the move he made for Saturday’s game that continued Sunday. “Plus it was ‘Mack Day’ [Mack’s Senior Day]. She was feeling like she was letting people down, and that’s the last thing that she needs to feel.”
Wallace hit .375 for the series with a .545 on-base percentage.
One odd stat for the normally active base running Crimson Tide was only one stolen base in the three games. It was by Wallace. She has nine steals on the season and trails only Mack’s dozen in that department for the team lead.
Mack at .437 and Wallace at .415 are the second and third best hitters average wise for the 14-8 (2-1 SEC) Crimson Tide.
Pitching-wise, sophomore Montana Fouts dropped to 3-3 with Friday’s tough-luck loss. The Hogs’ Autumn Storms only allowed five hits and no walks in seven frames.
That was not the case Sunday when she allowed seven runs [two earned] and was knocked out after pitching after 2.1 innings.
Freshman Lexi Kilfoyl got the Saturday and Sunday starts and won both times to up her record to 6-4 and lower her ERA to 2.31. Murphy said the decision to pitch the freshman in consecutive games was based on Kilfoyl’s “ability to go back-to-back like last weekend against Arizona when Montana was sick.
“Every Sunday of SEC series I told them today that every pitcher will be ready. If I say, ‘Are you good to go?’ in the third inning, the answer should be ‘Yes.’
“Everybody was ready and we didn’t need to bring anybody else in. She did a great job.”
Kilfoyl’s weekend numbers were 2-0 with a 1.75 ERA in 12 innings of work. In that span the right-hander had three walks and eight strikeouts.
“I was trusting all my pitches and trusting my defense,” she said. “I was spinning each pitch with something in mind. I just went out there confident in all my stuff.”
The schedule shifts out of conference play briefly when the Crimson Tide hosts its third home tournament of the season. Alabama’s first opponent — weather permitting — is BYU on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT. Other participants include Texas, Troy and Bryant.
