Until the sixth inning, No. 5 Alabama softball’s first inning looked like a fluke.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, sophomore infielder Marisa Runyon hit a grand slam to start the scoring in the 6-0 win over Ole Miss. Then the Crimson Tide loaded the bases two more times without scoring a single run.
“If there’s a negative, it’s 12 people left on base, but if there’s a positive, we had 12 people on base,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “We knew to make the starting pitcher bring it up. We did exactly that. You know they walked 10 people. After the first inning when you get all this excitement with the grand slam, you would hope that would carry over to other people.”
It didn’t.
Alabama stranded 12 runners and drew a season-high 10 walks. In the second and fourth innings, the Crimson Tide left the bases loaded. Senior infielder Danae Hays struck out twice, once looking with the bases loaded after putting up a triple in her first at-bat.
In the sixth, junior Andrea Hawkins pinch-hit for Danae Hays after Runyon walked. She doubled up the middle, scoring Runyon from first. Junior first baseman Leona Lafaele singled in the next at-bat, moving Hawkins to third, and senior catcher Chaunsey Bell hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Hawkins to make it 6-0.
Freshman right-hander Alexis Osorio (6-2) earned the win after seven innings pitched. She gave up two hits, walked two and struck out 11 batters. Osorio was responsible for the first seven outs, all of which were strikeouts. She caught two looking.
“A couple of them, if they look confused, I know she’s going to get them because they don’t know what’s coming next, and a couple of their kids looked like that in the box, especially their lefties,” Murphy said. “And they’re guessing. They’re really confused either about the movement or the location, and she struck out their leadoff I think three times, she was hitting [.490] so that was some really good pitching.”
Osorio has 64 strikeouts on the season. This was her third game where she had double-digit strikeouts and second in a row.
“I think it’s just, me and [Alabama pitching coach Stephanie VanBrakle] have been working on movement this whole time,” Osorio said. “I’m not really a power pitcher. I know I’m not going to blow it by them so the only thing I really need to focus on is just moving the ball and just putting it where they’re going to be able to swing and miss at it.”
With the win, Alabama (16-4, 1-0 SEC) has taken the last 24 over Ole Miss. The first pitch of Saturday’s game is scheduled for 2 p.m.
