Alabama Softball Shuts Out the Blazers

Alabama softball has been in a slump for the last few games. In a three-game series against the 12th-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks, the Tide only scored a total of six runs and lost two games. The team needed a rebound game and that is exactly what it did. In Rhoads Stadium, in front of their home fans, Alabama defeated the UAB Blazers 12-0.

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The issue for Alabama coming into this game was the batting. The defense has been playing lights out, but the bats were not rolling like you want to when SEC play is just around the corner. Against UAB though, the Crimson Tide played well on both offense and defense.

The scoring started during the bottom of the first inning, as Kali Heivillin, hit a solo home run into the right field, to put Alabama up 1-0. The Crimson Tide added to their lead just two batters later. After Ashley Prange got onto the second base, Emma Broadfoot came up to bat and singled into left field. This gap shot into left field gave Prange enough time to extend the Alabama lead to 2-0.

The story of the game though was the outstanding pitching of Alex Salter. Originally, Jaala Torrence was supposed to pitch tonight but due to a death in the family, according to coach Patrick Murphy, she had to return home. Salter did an amazing job in relief for Torrence as she was perfect through four straight innings. She only allowed one hit all game while throwing 52 total pitches.

"Her last performance against Arkansas, she allowed five walks even though she pitched a really good game," said coach Murphy. "Tonight, she barely got to three balls so that part is awesome for her. We said if you eliminate those walks you're fine. Really pleased with her and we needed her due to a death in Jaala Torrence's family".

On the batting side, the second inning is when everything finally clicked for Alabama. The Crimson Tide scored eight total runs and it was not even home runs. Most of the runs scored in this game were RBIs after batters hit a single or a double. Alabama just kept loading the bases up and hitting while UAB could not do anything to stop them.

The game ended after five and a half innings due to the NCAA Softball run rule. With this win,  the 13th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide improve to 23-8 on the year. Alabama has no time to rest because the team is traveling to Knoxville, TN, for a weekend series against the No. 3 ranked Tennessee Volunteers.