Alabama Softball Shuts-out, Run Rules Two Saturday At Easton Bama Bash

Alabama Softball continued their winning ways with two wins at home against Gardner-Webb and Texas Tech Saturday. Both games were shutouts and ended early by run-rule.

Alabama Softball improves to 12-2 on the 2017 campaign. Both games showed a good balance between excellent pitching and consistent hitting. Certainly, improvements will be needed for the Tide to have a long run this season.

Game 1: Alabama vs. Gardner-Webb

Madi Moore was in the circle for Alabama Softball. While it wasn’t exactly a stellar performance, Moore (2-1) did enough to get her second win of the season. She finished with five innings of work. Moore does have to clean up a bit in fielding, as she was responsible for two errors.

Nonetheless, Alabama managed to get the bats going and secure the victory 9-0 in five innings. In the second inning. Sydney Booker reached 1st base on an error by the pitcher, causing two runs to score.

In the second inning. Sydney Booker reached 1st base on an error by the pitcher, causing two runs to score. Freshman centerfielder Ellissa Brown knocked a single to the shortstop to score one more. It Marisa Runyon then bunted in a bases loaded situation, sending one more to score. Merris Schroder doubled to make it 6-0 Crimson Tide headed to the third.

In the fourth inning, Alabama warmed up the bats again. A one-RBI single by Carolina Hardy and a two-RBI double by Chandler Dare put the Tide up 9-0. Moore then closed the job in the 5th to shutout the Bulldogs.

Gardner-Webb’s Mackensie Thompson (2-6) was handed the loss. The Bulldogs moved to 5-14 on the year. The Bulldogs weighed heavily on their bullpen in the game, sending Ashley Wark and Summer Darnell to the circle in relief.

Game 2: Alabama vs. Texas Tech

It was Sydney Littlejohn day at Rhodes Stadium who got the start for the second game. Littlejohn (5-0) put on a marvelous performance, pitching for almost the entire game before coach Patrick Murphy called for relief. She was pulled from the game in the sixth as Alexis Osorio closed it up. Littlejohn has not allowed any earned runs in 33.1 innings. Alabama ended up with an 8-0 win in six innings.

It was a pitchers duel for Alabama Softball through the first four innings. Littlejohn was pitching a no-hitter until it was broken up in the fifth. Texas Tech’s Mattison Maisel (3-2) put up a valiant effort in the loss, with 132 pitches thrown, eight hits and five strikeouts.

After Schroder got one run in in the fifth off a single, the sixth inning was a disaster for Texas Tech. Demi Turner knocked a deep right center triple to bring a run in. Turner would finish 2-4 in the game.

After failing twice before to score with the bases loaded, Alabama finally capitalized. Runyon singled with the bases juiced, sending one run home. Both Carrigan Fain and Schroder were walked, making it 5-0 Alabama. A single to shortstop by Jenkins made the score to 6-0.  The run-rule went into effect when Dare doubled to make it 8-0.

Next: Alabama Gets Two Wins Friday At Easton Bama Bash

Alabama has one more game this weekend against UCF on Sunday. The game can be seen on SEC Network+ on WatchESPN.