Alabama softball knocked off the Georgia Bulldogs with an extra-inning, walk-off home run in its opening game of the SEC Softball Tournament.
A walk-off dagger to the heart! Alabama softball did it Thursday night and in much the same way the football version of the Crimson Tide did it in January 2018. And to the same school as well.
Alabama softball and the Georgia Bulldogs fought through almost eight full innings of a pitcher’s battle. Crimson Tide pitcher, Montana Fouts was sensational. On 127 pitches, Fouts gave up just four hits and one run. Fouts also totaled nine strikeouts.
The Alabama softball batters were not blasting the ball much either. That is until the end. Crimson Tide batters only managed six hits in the game. The big problem for Alabama softball was leaving baserunners stranded on base. The Tide stranded 13 base-runners. Three times, the Crimson Tide left the bases loaded.
While Fouts was tremendous, the hero of the night was Skyler Wallace. Wallace was the Tide’s leadoff hitter in the bottom of the eighth inning. Skyler said her thoughts were,
"Basically it was just get on base somehow and do whatever I needed to do. I knew Montana Fouts was working hard the whole game and I needed to start it off being the leadoff batter right there and swing hard."
She did more than get on base. She rounded all the based with a cannot shot that sent the ball towering high above and beyond the right-field wall.
THAT. WAS. CRUSHED.@AlabamaSB WINS IT ON A WALK-OFF HR!!! pic.twitter.com/ShzbwO7TuV
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) May 10, 2019
Skyler commented on her heroics, saying,
"I kind of knew it was gone, but I was iffy about it because the wind was blowing in really hard. I didn’t want to get too crazy at the beginning think it was gone, but I kind of did know."
Alabama softball head coach, Patrick Murphy will probably rest Montana Fouts for the potential finals game on Saturday. Sarah Cornell is Murphy’s most likely choice as pitcher Friday night. Early in the season, most of the buzz centered on Fouts, but Cornell ended up being named the SEC Pitcher of the Year. She also had success against the semi-final opponent, Kentucky.
Kentucky demolished Ole Miss in an 8-0, run-rule win earlier. The semi-final game begins at 6:00 PM CDT.