Little Lapses Lead to Big Loss for Alabama Softball in WCWS Opener
OKLAHOMA CITY — Jaala Torrence was cruising along against a dangerous Tennessee lineup, not allowing a hit against the first six batters she'd faced.
But a weak ground ball to third base would spell disaster for the Crimson Tide and disrupt Torrence's groove. Ashley Prange bobbled the ball hit her way, and it allowed Giulia Koutsoyanopulos to reach. That error would start a two-out, four-run rally for the Lady Volunteers in the second inning.
The second inning was just the start of a big day at the plate for No. 4 Tennessee on the way to a 10-5 win over No. 5 Alabama in the opening game of the Women's College World Series from Oklahoma City.
"This is the World Series," Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said after the loss. "You cannot give somebody 27 outs in a game. You cannot give them extra outs, 24, sorry. It seemed double to me. You just can't give extra outs. The margin of error is so slim. We talked about this. You just have to play clean the whole time."
Alabama now moves to the loser's bracket and is one game away from the season ending.
Tennessee has one of the best pitching staffs in the country. Despite once again being able to put up more runs on the Volunteers than most teams (they had only given up five or more runs seven times this year), the Alabama defense and pitching couldn't hold up enough for a win.
Against a talented and deep team like Tennessee, errors like that can be too much to overcome. After the second-inning error, Destiny Rodriguez singled to centerfield to put two runners on for the Lady Vols. Nine-hole hitter Katie Taylor cranked one out to deep right center to score both runners. Alabama then intentionally walked Kiki Malloy, and Zaida Puni made them pay with a double out to deep left center, giving Tennessee the 4-0 lead.
"Whenever they intentionally walk me, I'm like I don't know if that's the best move because Zaida is going to come up," Malloy said after the game. "Every time they walk me, I feel like she's done something to manufacture a run."
Tennessee added on more runs in the third and fourth inning. The third started with an infield single, bloop hit and a two-run home run from Jamison Brockenbrough. A bloop hit led off the fourth inning, and it eventually led to another four-run frame for the Volunteers.
The Crimson Tide showed some fight after falling behind by a wide margin. Kenleigh Cahalan single-handedly kept Alabama from getting run ruled. Tennessee had a 10-2 lead leading going into the fifth inning, but Cahalan's two-RBI double kept the Crimson Tide out of run-rule territory.
She had a leaping catch with bases loaded in the bottom half of the inning that stopped the Lady Vols from walking it off with the eight-run lead. Freshman Marlie Giles tacked on a pinch hit home run in the sixth inning to cut the deficit to five, but it was too little, too late against the power of the Tennessee offense.
Cahalan was disappointed in not coming through in the first inning and wanted to keep fighting for her team.
"I knew that our team has grit and everybody believes in one another," she said. "So I knew we were going to come back at some point and score runs when we needed them."
Alabama also benefitted from some bloops and wonky plays as Ally Shipman's jam shot scored Alabama's first run in the third inning, and a ground ball that literally bounced off the first base bag off the bat of Cahalan resulted in Alabama's second run.
Murphy couldn't have asked for a much better start at the plate. Prange worked through a 10-pitch at-bat to draw a leadoff walk. Two pitches later, Jenna Johnson singled to left field to put runners on first and third with no outs for the heart of the Alabama lineup.
It created a golden opportunity for the Crimson Tide to put up some early runs on Tennessee ace Ashley Rogers. But Alabama couldn't even scratch one run across in the opening frame. Bailey Dowling and Shipman popped up, and Cahalan flied out to strand the runners.
As the game played out, it showed how valuable some early runs could have been against the Volunteers. Murphy called it the key story of the game. Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly said it showed the toughness of her pitcher.
"That was huge, huge," Weekly said. "If we go down there, it just kind of depends. If you go down one, you're probably feeling okay. For them to get runners on first and third, and then we get three outs, the ball doesn't get out of the infield, that was big time."
There will be a quick turnaround for the Crimson Tide as Alabama will play in an elimination game Friday evening against the loser of the Oklahoma/Stanford game.
"We've been here before, twice– Supers and Regionals," Murphy said. "It was MTSU, win or go home. Northwestern, win or go home. We've been in this situation, so it's not a big deal.
"So it shouldn't be like this nervous energy. This probably is the way it's been written for this team, to make it the hard way. We have to play better defense. We have to get a good start from the starter. Then obviously the third thing is to key hit, and we need to do that early."
This story will be updated.
