Alabama Softball Shuts Down NCAA Home Run Leader In Regional Win

While Arkansas' superstar Bri Ellis has put up numbers comparable to those of all-time greats, Virginia Tech's Cori McMillan has the strongest case as the second-best hitter in softball this year. The senior led the nation with 30 home runs while finishing second in OPS (1.661) and total bases (172) this year.

Virginia Tech entered the Tuscaloosa Regional favored by the majority of analysts. No. 15 Alabama was viewed as potentially the weakest host, and a strong Hokies team with an elite pitcher in Emma Lemley and the prolific hitting of McMillan was seen as a trendy and fun upset pick. So, it should be no surprise that one of the biggest reasons the Crimson Tide earned two regional wins over the Hokies was because the team was able to shut down McMillan.

After going 1-2 with two walks in Saturday's 4-3 loss, the senior was nowhere to be found on Sunday, going 0-4 and striking out in the biggest moment of the Hokies' season.

Jocelyn Briski walked McMillan in five pitches in the first at-bat of Saturday's game. While she did end up scoring a run that inning, it set the tone: nothing easy. She was intentionally walked with a runner on second the next inning, and finally saw real pitches with two outs and a runner on first in the fourth, where she delivered her lone hit of the two games, a single that led to no runs.

Briski had, to this point, allowed McMillan on base in all three of her at-bats. That changed in the sixth. With Alabama clinging to a one-run lead, McMillan took ball one and then flew out to left on an excellent pitch from Briski that she just could not fully get a hold of.

"Their leadoff is special," head coach Patrick Murphy said of McMillan on Saturday. "And we were going to be really careful with her, but the way it worked out was to our advantage."

That at-bat set the tone for Sunday's game. Catelyn Riley was dealing in all three of her battles with McMillan, with the first one coming in the bottom of the first. After getting the count to 0-2, Riley threw outside for ball one, before catching the slugger looking for the punchout on a strike that simply had her beat.

With one out and nobody on in a scoreless game in the third, McMillan was put down again, this time grounding a 2-1 pitch to shortstop Salen Hawkins on a ball that needed just a little more power to make it to the outfield. She got a third crack at Riley in the fifth as the leadoff batter, where she finally got a hold of a ball and sent a strong line drive to right field. Unfortunately for McMillan, the ball was hit on a rope straight to Larissa Preuitt, who barely had to move to make the catch.

"She's a really good hitter, and she tried," Riley said. "She got a hold of some balls, and I was like, 'All right, this is gonna be a dog fight.' So she's a really good hitter."

There would be no fourth battle between the two. Riley gave up a two-run bomb to Rachael Castine in the bottom of the seventh, cutting the Alabama lead to just one run. Riley's excellent afternoon was done, and in came Briski to seal the deal. McMillan, against a pitcher whom she reached base against three out of four times a day ago, had the chance to keep her team's season and her own collegiate career alive.

It's the situation that every player spends hours lying awake in bed thinking about: an elite pitcher up against an elite batter with the game on the line. Moments like that are what make the sports of softball and baseball so great. McMillan took the first pitch for a strike, and the second for a ball. Pitch three came in right down the middle, and, just like that, the count was 1-2.

McMillan fouled off the next one, and the whole stadium held its breath. The nation's best power hitter, having one of the worst games of her season, just made contact. Could she get a hold of that ball again? Could she spark a Virginia Tech comeback to save the Hokies season?

The answer, as she dug in and swung at nothing but the air around her, was a resounding no. Briski had won the battle. And, as Jordan Lynch popped up to Marlie Giles moments later for the 21st out, Alabama had won the war. It was an incredible way for the Crimson Tide to clinch its 19th Super Regional under Murphy. Briski and Riley had bested one of the nation's elites.

"I was just trying to make something happen," McMillan said, through tears, of that final at-bat. "I was trying to get the ball in play, get on base because I know anybody behind me in the lineup can move me around, if not score themselves."

Briski, Riley, and the rest of the Crimson Tide now head to Norman for a Super Regional date with the four-time defending national champion Oklahoma Sooners. It could very easily be Virginia Tech making that trip to play in that series later this week. Looking back at two games, each decided by just one run, it must be remembered that every single at-bat could've altered the entire course of the regional. And Alabama, somehow, someway, did not allow McMillan to have that at-bat.

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