Hemphill Sparks Alabama to Super Regional Victory Over Kentucky

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- When the hits aren’t coming, your ace pitcher is a little out of sorts, and the home crowd is lifeless, there is only one player to turn to in that situation.

Bailey Hemphill answered, and the rest of the Crimson Tide followed en route to Alabama’s 4-3 win in Game 1 of the Super Regional at Rhoads Stadium.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Saturday at 1 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN.

Hemphill, the SEC Player of the Year and all-time Crimson Tide home run leader, hit a line drive single to left field in the fourth inning. It might not seem like a big deal, but it certainly was.

That woke up the Alabama dugout, and the crowd, who finally had something to cheer. Autumn Humes had retired 10 straight batters to that point, including four strikeouts.

Two more hits set up KB Sides, who blasted a three-run triple to center field to put Alabama on top 3-2. Sides scored on a Maddie Morgan hit for a 4-2 advantage.

That was all Alabama’s offense, but it was enough.

"When Bailey got the hit it kind of relaxed everybody," Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. "I think everyone let out a big sigh of relief, like, 'OK, we got our first hit, now let's go to work.' Five hits in the inning, it was a great inning for our offense for sure.

For three innings Alabama’s offense looked out of sorts, chasing pitches out of the zone and not being patient. Hemphill put an end to all that.

She has been the one constant for Alabama this season. Certainly she's the catalyst for most of Alabama's offensive spurts this season. She leads the team in average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, RBIs, home runs and walks.

What’s more impressive, in 134 at-bats, Hemphill has struck out just six times. She struck out just once against SEC opponents in the regular season.

"When Bailey got that hit I knew we were going to score at least three or four runs that inning," Sides said. "There is no one better than Bailey to get things going. She hit that ball hard and it kind of knocked the wind out of Humes, and that's exactly what we needed to start that inning.

It was just the opposite for Kentucky through the first three innings. The Wildcats worked Alabama ace pitcher Montana Fouts deep into the count. It wasn’t like the last time the Wildcat were in town to face Alabama, a 5-1 loss in the SEC Tournament with 15 strikeouts to Fouts.

But the big fourth inning Friday afternoon sucked the life right out of Kentucky, which was punchless the rest of the game except for some drama in the seventh. Renee Abernathy homered, her second of the day, and Kentucky loaded the bases with two outs. But Fouts got a strikeout to end the game.