A series win over No. 23 Texas A&M wasn’t enough to lessen the sting of No. 5 Alabama softball’s 11-5 loss on Sunday.
The Crimson Tide battled back, tying the game and coming within a run before the Aggies pulled ahead and cruised to 11 runs.
Name it and Alabama struggled with it on Sunday.
“No pitching, no defense, no continuous hitting – you’re not going to win many games,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “I mean, that’s just — and bad base running, so really 0-for-4.”
Freshman right-hander Alexis Osorio (11-4) struck out seven in the loss. She pitched 3.2 innings to start before coming back in the seventh to get the last three outs. She gave up six runs on six hits. She walked three and struck out seven.
Sophomore right-hander Sydney Littlejohn came in for relief in the fourth inning and pitched 2.1 innings, giving up five runs, three of which were earned. She walked three.
The 11 runs were a season high along with the 11 hits given up.
“I’m not sure what it was, but hopefully it was just one of those things that happens once a year, because that’s really the first poor start for Lexi, and then Sydney usually does a good job in relief and she didn’t either,” Murphy said. “And then we don’t make a couple defensive plays and then all of a sudden, instead of 6-5, it starts to balloon.”
The Crimson Tide scored five runs in three innings. Freshman second baseman Demi Turner had an RBI single in the second to score Alabama’s first run. She doubled in another run in the fourth.
After a three-run fourth inning that cut Texas A&M’s lead to 6-5, Alabama had two hits in the last three innings.
“I kind of just felt like we got into a little lull right there, and that’s got to stop,” senior shortstop Danae Hays said. “I’m tired of coming to [the media] and saying, ‘Hey, that just felt like a little lull.’ We’ve got to cut that out, and thank goodness we still have a lot of games ahead of us in the SEC and some good games at that. I’m tired of looking flat on Sunday. I think we come out strong Friday and Saturday and then we just kind of look flat on Sunday.”
The Crimson Tide had eight hits and left eight on base in the loss.
Sunday drew the largest crowd of the series with an announced 3,128 in attendance.
“I cannot stand losing at home,” Murphy said. “It just bugs me. We had a great crowd. All their energy is ready to pour out into us, and we don’t do anything to get it out of them.”
Alabama (25-8) hosts Mississippi Valley State (8-26) Tuesday at 6 p.m.
