The opportunities were there. There were runners on base and the hitters were in favorable counts, but Alabama softball failed to convert in the 1-0 loss to Arkansas to open SEC play on Friday. The opening night loss is the first time the Crimson Tide did not win its first game in SEC since 2013.

Alabama (12-8, 0-1 SEC) once again faced strong pitching, as Arkansas pitcher Autumn Storms (10-2, 0.80 ERA), came into the matchup ranked 29th in ERA and was ninth in the strikeout-to-walk ratio (9.17). Storms lived up to her strong stats on Friday, pitching a complete-game shutout with just two walks and five hits.

“It’s very frustrating, because you do have people getting on base and then you can’t push it across. It’s honestly like a shot in the heart,” junior K.B. Sides said. “That really just makes you go back and rethink the whole game and you’re like, ‘What more could I have done?’ That’s how I look at it.”

Alabama had a chance to push across the first run of the game when sophomore Skylar Wallace drew a walk and stole second base with one out in the first inning. Then Sides singled, her first of three hits for the game, to put runners on the corners with one away in the inning with senior Bailey Hemphill coming to the plate.

A 6-4-3 double play would end the inning, becoming an indicator of Alabama’s hitting woes with runners on base. The Crimson Tide left five runners on base and went 1 for 9 (.111) with runners on base in the loss.

“[Sides] is on base three times, it’s one out and you got your best hitter behind her, so we need to do a little bit better to continue an inning,” coach Patrick Murphy said. “One time I think it was an inning-ending double play, last inning an inning-ending double play — just needed more besides her. But we need to score in the first six [innings] because if we have a lead, it’s a different game I think.”

The missed opportunity in the first inning put a brighter spotlight on sophomore Montana Fouts (3-3, 1.91 ERA) to keep the Razorbacks — whose .449 on-base percentage was the fourth-highest in the nation through 21 games — off of the base paths.

Fouts was able to thwart a few Arkansas scoring opportunities of her own, stranding eight runners on base going into the top of the seventh. The Razorbacks began to put more pressure on Fouts from the fourth inning until the seventh as Arkansas began each inning with a leadoff runner.

In the seventh, the leadoff walk became the game-winning run when the Razorbacks’ Danielle Gibson came through with the key RBI single.

“I thought Montana battled really hard for six innings, and then the walks killed her,” Murphy said. “She had five walks and the winning run was a walk and then she got to second on a passed ball. So there’s two freebies right there.”

Alabama will face Arkansas again at home on Saturday, March 7. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.

“We keep telling them, ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint,'” Murphy said. “It’s 24 long games, it’s a huge season and one game isn’t going to kill us in the long run. We need to come back and get the series for sure, though.”