Alabama Fizzles Out, Falls Short of SEC Softball Tournament Title

Alabama fell one game short of the SEC regular season title, and the Crimson Tide fell one game short of the tournament title after getting overwhelmed in all three phases in Saturday's tournament championship against Texas.

The 4-seed Longhorns scored seven unanswered runs to claim their first SEC tournament title in a 7-1 victory over the 2-seed Crimson Tide.

Texas ace Teagan Kavan was phenomenal in the circle in her third time facing the Crimson Tide this season. The combination of her rise ball and changeup kept the Alabama batters off balance all game, and she struck out 12. The 12 strikeouts is a new season high for the Alabama offense.

The Crimson Tide's best chance to get to Kavan came in the bottom of the fourth inning. Brooke Wells reached on a leadoff error, and the Tide had the bases loaded with one out after an infield single and walk. But Kavan struck out the next two batters to leave the bases loaded. Alabama never threatened again.

Alabama appeared to have all the momentum after the first inning. Alexis Pupillo crushed a solo home run with two outs to give the Crimson Tide the early lead, but that momentum quickly dissipated.

"Texas was the better team today," Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said after the game. "Lex got the big rip in the first, and we really didn’t do anything after that. You’ve really got to credit Miss Teagan for bouncing back. She didn’t give up much after that. We had bases loaded and had two Ks. That was an opportunity to get back into it, and she just cruised, basically. Too many strikeouts by us. We didn’t put the ball in play enough, and we didn’t force them to make any plays.”

The Texas offense seemed to find all the right holes in the second inning and was able to put up two runs against Alabama ace Jocelyn Briski. She was able to work her way out of a jam in the next inning, and she was relieved by Vit Moten to start the fourth.

Texas put up three runs in the fourth inning starting with an RBI single from SEC Player of the Year Katie Stewart. The next two runs came on what should have been the final out of the inning. Audrey Vandagriff dropped a fly ball to left field with bases loaded that allowed two runs to score that pushed the Longhorns lead to 5-1.

Stewart's day wasn't done with a solo home run in the sixth, and Texas added on one more run with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Reese Atwood.

Moten exited in the sixth inning after a ball was hit off her body. She appeared to be OK as she walked it off back to the dugout, but fellow freshman Kaitlyn Pallozzi came in to throw the final 1.2 innings and did not allow a run in relief.

The Crimson Tide offense had been so good through the first two games of the SEC tournament but disappeared when it mattered most on Saturday. Kavan is an excellent pitcher and led Texas to a national title last season, but Alabama needed to make adjustments at the plate after facing her for the third time this year.

"I think she just kept us off time almost the entire game, and it was really hard for us to get our timing down," Pupillo said of Kavan. "And timing is one of the No. 1 things that goes wrong in hitting.”

Alabama now awaits its NCAA tournament fate. The Crimson Tide is in the conversation to be the No. 1 overall seed and will almost certainly be a top-eight seed with the opportunity to host regionals and super regionals at Rhoads Stadium. The NCAA selection show is Sunday at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

"We use this to prepare us for next week and hopefully the week after that and hopefully the week after that because you should feel prepared because you’ve just seen some of the best players in the country for three straight days," Murphy said.

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