Alabama opened up the weekend with a doubleheader against Ole Miss on Friday. The Crimson Tide defeated the Rebels 5-3 in Game 1 before claiming a six-inning 13-2 victory in Game 2.
Outfielder Lauren Johnson was the first to put a run on the board in Game 1 with a two-run home-run to left in the second inning. Ole Miss followed pursuit, putting a two-run home run on the board as well to bring the game to a tie.
In the top of the third, infielder Brooke Wells advanced the score to 3-2 with a solo shot to right. Ole Miss brought the game to a tie again in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI.
In the fifth inning, infielder Salen Hawkins walked, putting Alabama at 4-3 before infielder Abby Duchscherer ended the game with another walk to bring the final score to 5-3.
In the second game of the doubleheader, outfielder Ana Roman secured Alabama’s first run with a bases-loaded walk. Wells scored the second run of the inning with an RBI groundout.
Alabama put four more runs on the board in the second with a single up the middle from Wells and a three-run home run from Roman to the right.
The Crimson Tide entered the third inning 6-0 and advanced to the fifth 9-0 after a Wells single to right that brought home two and outfielder Audrey Vandagriff scored from third after a sac fly.
Ole Miss put up its first run of the game in the bottom of the third with a single to right and then quickly added another to its tally with an RBI, going into the fourth 9-2.
The fourth and fifth innings went runless before Alabama broke the streak in the top of the sixth with a single and an error back-to-back to bring home two runs. Infielder Ambrey Taylor ended play 13-2 with a two-run pinch-hit home run.
“I thought offensively we did a better job of driving in people from scoring position in the second game,” head coach Patrick Murphy said. “The only blip on the day was I thought we left too many on base in the first game but otherwise it was a really good day.”
Alabama played Ole Miss for the third and final time of the series on Sunday and brought home the win 2-1, a stark contrast from the scoring of the first day of the series.
The first three innings went by runless, despite effort from Alabama who had players on base in each inning. In the fourth, Vandagriff managed to produce Alabama’s first run with an RBI single up the middle. Alexis Pupillo followed suit with an RBI in the fifth.
In the sixth, both teams went back to being runless. Ole Miss gained its first run in the seventh with an RBI single to bring the end score to 2-1.
Pitcher Jocelyn Briski opened the game, throwing six shutout innings before freshman pitcher Vic Moten entered in the seventh after the Rebels attempted a comeback with two on base. Moten secured Ole Miss’ final out, earning her first career save.
“I thought Briski gave us an incredible start. There were only two innings where people got on base and then Moten came in, shut the door and did what she needed to do,” Murphy said. “We played really good defense all weekend and that was one of the big keys today.”
