Sydney Booker drove in five runs in No. 4 Alabama softball’s 8-0 mercy-rule win over Mississippi State. The sophomore transfer went 2-4 with an RBI single and a three-run home run in the win. It was her first home run at Alabama.

“She’s done it in practice a lot, and I don’t know if she’s not getting the pitches she needs to hit,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “She’s a great kid.”

Sophomore right-hander Alexis Osorio (10-5) picked up her first SEC win after pitching six shutout innings. She allowed five hits, hit a batter and struck out nine. Sixty-two of her 91 pitches were strikes.

She’s starting to look more like the SEC Freshman of the Year she was a spring ago.

“I’ve been starting to see if they do get a hit or maybe two, then the next pitch is a great pitch,” Murphy said. “That was kind of what she did last year ‘cause when her back was against the wall, she would bow up, and I’m starting to see that this year.”

In the top of the fifth, she allowed back-to-back singles. The bases were loaded on an error at first with two outs. She then struck out the next batter on three pitches. 

“Everything’s slowly coming back,” Osorio said. “It’s slowly fitting in and I think that it’s going to come back later on this season.”

Alabama had nine hits in the win. Booker and junior utility Chandler Dare were the only players with multi-hit days for the Crimson Tide. Dare went 3-3 with a triple and a walk. She had two RBIs and scored twice.

On Friday she went 1-3 with a walk.

“Yesterday, I wasn’t as focused I felt at the plate,” Dare said. “I wasn’t seeing the ball as big so my big thing today was just focus and not take such of a big cut, just take more direct to it, more of a shorter cut, shorter approach, and that really helped me today to stay focused and see the ball big.”

Alabama (34-7, 7-4 SEC) goes for the sweep against Mississippi State (21-17, 2-9) on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.