ALABAMA 4, NORTH ALABAMA 2
The Crimson Tide rolled up to Florence, AL on Wednesday and I am half-surprised the team did not take a side-trip to Brooke Ellestad’s Wisconsin hometown along the way. The announced attendance was 3,058 which is a BIG number for a Wednesday night in northwest Alabama.
In the victory, Patrick Murphy earned his 1,300th career win as head coach of the Crimson Tide. Appropriately, it was not pretty.
Catelyn Riley got the start for Alabama and gave up a pair of runs in the 3rd inning, the second of which came on a UNA Lion scoring from second base on a ground out.
Riley would exit the game following that inning with 5 hits and two earned runs to her credit. Meanwhile, the Tide left the bases loaded in both the 2nd and 4th innings with one out in each situation.
Mary Elizabeth Emily Winstead gave up a leadoff single in the 4th. Riley Valentine, who got the rare start behind the plate, gunned the runner down trying to steal second base. What a concept! Winnie would whiff the next two batters. Bama put two runners on in the bottom of the frame with no outs but could not score.
Jocelyn Briski pitched the 6th and struck out two.
Up 2-0 with three outs to get, the Lions (Lionesses?) fell to pieces. Ellestad led off the top o’ the 7th with a single that deflected off the pitcher’s glove. Kali Heivilin followed with a single up the middle. After a fly out, Abby Duchscherer hit a sharp grounder to the third baseman who stepped on third and then threw in the dirt to first base with the ball trickling out into right field as Ellestad came around to score. What should have been a game-ending double play, turned into a one-run game with a runner on second base.
At this point, Murphy’s forgotten child Lauren Johnson walked to the plate and roped a solid RBI game-tying single to right field. In a head’s up play, Johnson then took second base on a bobble in right. Huge move. WHY DON’T YOU PLAY HER, MURPH??
Valentine smoked a ball over the left field fence, but it was just foul. She would eventually walk. Right out of a Bad News Bears trailer, Salen Hawkins hit what should have been an inning-ending dribbler to the shortstop, but the ball went right between the UNA defender’s legs and allowed another Bama run to score. Pinch-hitter Kendal Clark followed with an RBI one-bagger to make it 4-2.
Outside of a double, Briski struck out the side in the bottom of the 7th for the win.
- Bama had 12 hits but left 12 runners on base, several in scoring position.
- Kali Heivilin was 4 for 4.
- Larissa Preuitt led off and went 0 for 5. Audrey Vandagriff had the night off.
- Riley pitched 3 innings, Winstead 2 and Briski 2. No pitching changes were made in the middle of an inning. Somebody is learning.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
- Friday, Mar 28 vs Georgia 6pm/7pm
- Saturday, Mar 29 vs Georgia 2pm/3pm – “Wear Teal”, fight against ovarian cancer.
- Sunday, Mar 30 vs Georgia 11am/noon – ESPN2
