Fouts, Prange Help No. 8 Alabama Softball Secure Series Win Over No. 23 Missouri

Alabama softball capped off its regular season Sunday with a crucial win while picking up some much-needed momentum heading into the SEC Tournament. Led by a dominant performance in the circle from Montana Fouts and some timely hitting from Ashley Prange, No. 8 Alabama outlasted No. 23 Missouri for a 3-1 victory.

After dropping Game 1 of the series Friday night, the Crimson Tide (41-10, 16-8 in the SEC) rallied back for two straight wins against the Tigers (33-19, 12-11). Sunday’s victory secures Alabama the No. 2 seed in this week’s SEC Tournament in Gainesville, Fla. The Crimson Tide will begin tournament play Thursday at 1:30 p.m. CT against the winner of Wednesday’s matchup between the No. 7 seed Missouri and the No. 10 seed Auburn.

Fouts (22-5) retired the first nine batters she faced Saturday before running into a bit of trouble in the top of the fourth. After an infield single and a sacrifice bunt gave Missouri a runner on second base with one out, Fouts threw the ball over first baseman Kaylee Tow’s head after fielding a ground ball in the circle.

While the blunder allowed the Tigers to take an early lead, Fouts battled back to avoid any further damage, keeping the game in reach for Alabama’s bats.

The Crimson Tide stranded five runners on base over the first three innings before finally breaking through in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs and runners on first and second base, Prange lifted a three-run home run to left field to put Alabama up 3-1.

The play drew a bit of controversy as Missouri left fielder Casidy Chaumont was able to get a glove on the ball, causing it to bounce off the top of the wall and back in play. However, since a home run was already called on the field, the play was not eligible to be overturned via replay.

That bit of offense is all Alabama would need as Fouts handled the rest in the circle. The senior allowed one unearned run on four hits and a walk while striking out six batters in a complete-game effort.

Sunday’s win helped Alabama avoid dropping back-to-back SEC series after the Crimson Tide lost two out of three games to unranked Texas A&M last month. Alabama hasn’t lost back-to-back series in conference play since 2018 when it dropped four consecutive series against Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia.

Ashley Prange

Bailey Dowling

Kaylee Tow on Senior Day