For its debut in the Easton Alabama Invite, the Alabama Crimson Tide took calm strides around the base-paths thanks to numerous walks from theMarylandpitching staff on the way to a 19-1 mercy rule final.
Alabamawalked ten times in the bottom of the first alone, including seven straight batters. The pitching woes the Terrapins experienced presented a difficult situation for theAlabamaoffense by forcing it to not swing at so many pitches as opposed to an overaggressive day-to-day mentality.
“We knew that the stats said they were capable of walking, but you don’t want to let a good pitch go by,” head coach Patrick Murphy said. “You really have to be disciplined. If she came with a strike, we were going to hit the ball, and if not, we were going to lay off the ball. In the first inning, [the players] did an awesome job.”
Senior first baseman Cassie Reilly-Boccia added, “In the first few innings, it was about being selective and staying smart.”
Alabamawas able to use the new discipline-themed gameplan to hit the ball after the first inning, and hit it hard. OfAlabama’s 12 hits against the Terrapins Friday afternoon, four of them were homeruns.
“If you’re going to take a cut, you might as well take a bug cut and get your money’s worth,” Reilly-Boccia said. “You get the freedom to take bigger hacks.”
One of those homeruns was of the inside-the-park variety courtesy of substitute second baseman Ryan Iamurri. Her inside-the-park homerun scored herself and pinch hitter Lauren Sewell and was Iamurri’s only hit of the game.
“I went up there thinking I was going to slap, because the ground is really hard, so I just wanted to get the ball in play and run,” Iamurri said. “Then, she threw two balls so I just knew the next one was going to be right down the middle.”
The blowout victory gave the Tide the opportunity to play every player it had available.
“It was awesome,” Murphy said. “I think 19 out of 20 on the team got up to play and the one that didn’t was injured. Our pinch hitters did a great job. [Substitute leftfielder] Jadyn Spencer gets us a homerun, Sewell gets a base hit and [substitute third baseman [Danielle] Richard gets two single up the middle. It was a fun game to play.”
Even in such a one-sided victory, Murphy still found some things to correct, especially relating to the lone runMarylandscored.Maryland’s Bria Taylor reached first base on a fielding error, then reached third in an attempt to steal second after a throwing error by catcher Olivia Gibson.
“Two errors in the last inning is not good,” Murphy said. “Just make the plays. If we field the ball, they don’t score a run.”
Outside of the fielding errors at the end of the game, the defense and starting pitcher Jackie Traina put together a dominating performance like the offense that supports them.
Traina pitched three innings and gave up two hits while retiring seven batters via strikeout. Amanda Locke finished the game for Traina, allowing one hit in her two-inning appearance. The two did not walk a single batter.
Unless the sever weather that threatensTuscaloosatonight alters the schedule,Alabamawill playMassachusetts, or UMass, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon then meet Maryland again at 4 p.m.
