It came down to the final out in the top of the seventh inning of Sunday’s game, but the No. 11 Alabama softball team came away with the series sweep over South Carolina in the opening weekend of SEC play.

“This is awesome,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “I don’t think there’s going to be too many sweeps in the SEC this year.”

The 3-0 series sweep was the only SEC series sweep this weekend.

“We need to take care of the home turf, and our goal is to win every SEC game at home,” Murphy said. “And I know there’s some really big games coming up, but to get the first three is a good feeling.”

(See also “Softball team sweeps Gamecocks“)

Hot off the South Carolina series sweep to open SEC play, Alabama will face Mississippi Valley State in the 10th showdown between the two teams.

The Crimson Tide is 9-0 all-time against the Delta Devilettes.

Murphy said the midweek matchup is a time to give his players more experience.

“I’m going to get some more people in to play, get some at bats,” Murphy said. “They need to see live pitching because it’s been a while since some of them have. There were a couple of people this weekend that did a good job, but I need some other people off the bench and in the game to see it. And I think this will be a good game to do it.”

This weekend, Alabama relied on some freshmen to come up with key plays and at bats.

“I think having depth and having different people play throughout the season, I think it makes everybody hungrier, because [on Saturday] with Peyton [Grantham] and Marisa [Runyon], they both did well,” Murphy said. “Sydney [Littlejohn] did well, and I’m hoping that the next time Leslie [Jury] gets out there, she’s going to say, ‘Hey, I want to do what Sydney did,’ and Chaunsey [Bell] looks at Peyton and says, ‘I want to do what she did.’”

(See also “Kaila Hunt hits walk-off in first SEC game“)

Littlejohn (5-0) came in for relief in all three weekend games. She pitched five innings without hits and struck out three batters.

Saturday, she earned the win after 3 2/3 innings pitched in the 10-5 victory over South Carolina. Sunday, she earned her first save of the year after coming in with no outs and the bases loaded with a 4-1 lead.

Grantham drove in two runs with a single in Saturday’s game, and Runyon had a pinch-hit RBI single in the sixth inning that day.

“I think it’s almost a good peer pressure on the team, because when the youngsters do well, the older kids, I think, automatically think they’d better step up, and that’s what’s good about depth,” Murphy said.

The last time Alabama and Mississippi Valley State faced each other, the Crimson Tide came away with an 8-5 win.

(See also “Raging in right field“)