No. 4 Alabama went up against No. 11 South Alabama and its pitcher Farish Beard, who owns the lowest ERA in the country, and came out on top 3-0.
Freshman right-hander Sydney Littlejohn (7-0, 1.30 ERA) earned the win after pitching four innings. She allowed three hits and hit one batter in Wednesday night’s win.
“She needs to have an opportunity against a top-15 team, and that was her first start against a really good team, a highly ranked team,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “I thought she did a great job.”
Senior right-hander Jaclyn Traina came in for relief in the fifth inning after Littlejohn hit a batter and allowed a single. Murphy said he usually brought in Littlejohn for relief this season.
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“So here you’ve got the 98-mph kid and then you bring in the 70, and that’s almost worse,” Murphy said. “We weren’t sure what was going to happen because it was really Sydney’s first good start against a good team, and they could time her early, but then you get Jackie to come in, and then everybody’s late, but it’s a good combination.”
The Crimson Tide had five hits off Beard (16-2, .40 ERA). All three of the Tide’s runs were unearned.
Alabama’s three runs came off a three-run double by sophomore outfielder Andrea Hawkins in the second inning. Sophomore first baseman Leona Lafaele reached first on an error. Beard hit Traina with no outs. Freshman third baseman Peyton Grantham flied out to center, and junior shortstop Danae Hays grounded out to the pitcher to advance Lafaele and Traina. The Jaguars walked sophomore center fielder Haylie McCleney to load the bases with two outs for Hawkins.
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“Those pressure situations are getting to be a lot easier,” Hawkins said. “With Haylie, as soon as she got the walk, she’s like, ‘Hawk, you know they’re coming for you. They’re doing it again. They’re doing it again.’ And just her talking about it makes it so much easier.”
Hawkins cleared the bases with a double before being caught in a rundown to end the inning.
The three-run double was all Alabama needed in its 11th shutout win this season.
“Obviously a shutout, I’ll take that all day long,” Murphy said.
Alabama snapped South Alabama’s 13-game winning streak and is 9-0 against the Jaguars.
“It was a great win for us,” Littlejohn said. “I mean, South Alabama is a very good, very disciplined team, and we had to come out ready to play, and our team did. We were all fighting as a team, fighting throughout the game. It was just a really good team win for us.”
The Crimson Tide (32-5, 11-1 SEC) will host Arkansas this weekend in a three-game series.
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