No. 22 Alabama Softball Sweeps Crimson Classic with Sunday win over UAB

The Crimson Tide has now won nine straight games.

Alabama Softball Player Abby Duchscherer (10) celebrates a double against UAB at Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL on Sunday, Mar 2, 2025. | Alabama Athletic

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alexis Pupillo lasered a home run over the centerfield wall to put an exclamation point on Alabama softball's weekend in the Crimson Classic. Her two-run home run gave the No. 22 Crimson Tide a comfortable lead heading into the final inning of Sunday's 6-3 win over UAB to complete the weekend sweep.

Pupillo slugs some insurance runs💥

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— Alabama Softball (@AlabamaSB) March 2, 2025

UAB relief pitcher Tait Davidson had the Alabama offense stymied for two innings until the Tide finally took its first lead of the game in the fifth inning on an RBI-groundout from Brooke Ellestad after Abby Duchscherer led off the inning with a double off the wall.

"We had a lot of popups watching from the dugout, and our goal is to always just do something different than the batter in front of you, so I knew I had to get my top hand above the ball and get a line drive or a hard ground ball," Duchscherer said. "And I was fortunate enough to be able to do that and get a double."

Errors were an issue for Alabama all weekend, and once again were costly for the Crimson Tide on Sunday. UAB had two runners on in the first after back-to-back singles with one out. Starting pitcher Catelyn Riley had the ball hit back to her. She tried to get the lead runner at third, but instead bobbled the ball, and it rolled off her foot into the outfield.

The mistake allowed a run to score and the batter to move to second base on the play. Both runners came in to score on a single through the right side on the next at-bat as the Blazers jumped out to a 3-0 before Alabama's first at-bat.

"We've got to be so much cleaner on defense," Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said after the game. "Way too many freebies still... We have to treat the softball like a golden egg, and we have not done that yet all the way-around.

"I was really pleased with coming back though because we got punched in the face."

Alabama answered in the bottom half of the second inning thanks to four free passes allowed by UAB and RBI hits from Kristen White and Audrey Vandagriff, who hit a ground-rule double over the centerfield wall. It was the second of three hits on the day for Vandagriff, who is now batting .500 on the season.

Murphy relied heavily on his bullpen with Alabama utilizing four different arms in the game, but the staff did not allow any more runs after the first inning.

The offense was on fire all weekend. Alabama has now scored 96 runs over its nine-game winning streak. The Crimson Tide will play a midweek game at Samford on Tuesday before returning home to Rhoads Stadium next weekend for the spring break showdown with Louisiana and Iowa.