Dowling Delivers Alabama to Series Win over Florida
Up until the sixth inning, Alabama and Florida were locked in a pitchers duel and a classic matchup between the two powerhouses of SEC softball.
The matchup became so good that it needed extra innings to determine a winner.
Bailey Dowling led off the ninth inning with her fifth home run of the season to give the Crimson Tide the 2-1 lead. That score would hold as Montana Fouts came in for the save to close out the excellent eight innings of work from Lexi Kilfoyl, and Alabama won the game and the series over the Gators in Gainesville Sunday night.
The Alabama starter had not given up any runs, but had not gotten any run support from her team in the first five innings. In fact, the Crimson Tide didn't even have a hit through 5.2 innings.
Ashley Prange stepped to the plate with two outs in the top of the sixth and smacked a triple out to the centerfield wall for Alabama's first hit. Two batters later, Dowling came through with a single up the middle for her first clutch hit of the game to score Prange from third and give Alabama its first lead at 1-0.
Patrick Murphy was aggressive on the play and sent Ally Shipman from first on the ground ball single. She was initially ruled safe at the plate, but after review, Shipman was called out to end the inning and Alabama rally. Florida was able to carry that momentum into the bottom of the inning.
Florida shortstop and Alabama transfer Skylar Wallace answered in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff home run, but that would be the only run scored by the Gators. Kilfoyl and Fouts combined to keep the Gators off the board for the final three innings. They were backed up by strong defense to stifle the Florida offense and rob a few hits with web gems from Prange and Jenna Johnson.
In her first appearance sine the perfect game on Monday, Kilfoyl only allowed on earned run in eight innings pitched with seven strikeouts and two walks. She improved to 8-2 on the season and lowered her ERA to 1.69.
Alabama Athletics
Alabama Athletics
Alabama Athletics
Alabama Athletics
Alabama Athletics
After being held hitless for nearly six innings, the Alabama offense finished with seven hits. For the second day in a row, freshman Jenna Lord had two hits as the designated player, and Dowling had the two clutch hits to drive in both runs.
The Crimson Tide and Gators have combined to win at least a share of every SEC regular season title since 2008, and with the win Alabama (33-5, 10-4 SEC) stays in solid positioning over the Gators (30-9, 7-7 SEC) and the rest of the league.
The series concludes Monday night at 6 on SEC Network as Alabama will be going for the sweep.
