No. 3/4 Alabama softball (31-5; 11-4 SEC) handed No. 8/10 Arkansas (33-5; 13-2 SEC) its first SEC home series loss since May of 2017. Now just inching behind the first-place Razorbacks, The Crimson Tide remains in the hunt for an SEC regular season title.

GAME ONE:

A four-run third inning propelled Alabama to to a 5-3 win to open up its fifth conference series of the year.

Graduate student Elissa Brown tallied the first hit of the game for either side to begin the Alabama offense in the top of the third and would be the first of four consecutive batters to reach base in the frame. Senior K.B. Sides doubled to score Brown and graduate student Alexis Mack, 2-0, and would come around to score herself on graduate student Bailey Hemphill’s eighth home run of the season, 4-0. 

Hemphill’s home run put her at a second-place tie for the most home runs in program history, 58, and is now two shy of tying Kelly Kretschman’s program record of 60. 

The Razorbacks quickly found themselves back in the game after junior Montana Fouts (12-2; 1.74 ERA) committed a throwing error in the bottom half of the third, which allowed three unearned runs in the inning. Arkansas created a bases loaded situation in each of the fifth and sixth innings, but Fouts was able to induce a ground ball and strikeout to get out of the jams. The Kentucky native found success when Razorbacks were in scoring position as Arkansas was able to only scratch one hit off of eight opportunities, .125 batting average. Fouts finished the night with 12 strikeouts, five hits and 139 pitches. 

Alabama’s insurance run came via a solo home run from sophomore Savannah Woodard in the top of the fourth. Woodard was one of the six Crimson Tide batters to record a hit in the game. 

GAME TWO:

After failing to record a home run in a game for only the fifth time this season on Friday night, Arkansas found its home run power Saturday afternoon, Apr. 10, with a trio against sophomore Lexi Kilfoyl (11-3; 1.56 ERA) to even the weekend series, 4-0. 

The first longball of the day for the Razorbacks came off the bat of the conference’s home run, 21, graduate student Braxton Burnside. Kilfoyl has now surrendered a home run in her last four appearances and a total of eight on the season. 

The Alabama offense was unable to find a groove against redshirt senior Autumn Storms as she shut out the Crimson Tide offense that had been shut out only one time prior to game two of the series. Storms has now thrown two shutouts in her last three starts against Alabama.

Senior K.B. Sides and sophomore Savannah Woodard were the only two Alabama players to collect a hit against Storms and the offense as a whole hit for a .083 average, which is its lowest batting average in a game this season. Alabama struck out 10 times with Mack, Brown and Kilfoyl each striking out multiple times. For the first time this season, no Crimson Tide base runner was able to reach third base. 

Graduate student Sarah Corenll (2-0; 2.33 ERA) made her second appearance in SEC play as she relieved Kilfoyl in the bottom of the sixth. Cornell retired the three batters she faced and had a pair of strikeouts. 

GAME THREE:

A two-hit gem and double-digit strikeout performance by Fouts (13-2; 1.52 ERA) propelled Alabama to a 2-0 series win over Arkansas and its fourth SEC series win. 

The junior became only the second pitcher to shutout the Razorbacks and did not allow an earned run to score over the course of the weekend. 

Fouts only allowed one Arkansas batter to reach third base, which came in a bases loaded situation with no outs. The Kentucky native was able to escape the threat with a pair out strikeouts and induced a pop up to end the inning. 

Head coach Patrick Murphy has stated in the past that one of the three keys to winning a game is timely hitting. The Alabama offense was unable to record a hit with runners in scoring position, 0-10, but was able to score due to sophomore Jenna Johnson getting hit by a pitch with a bases loaded in the second and it’s insurance run came in the final frame off of a wild pitch. 

Despite the inability to produce a clutch hit, Alabama found success getting on base as it tallied seven hits and drew a trio of walks. In game two, Storms struck out 10 batters, but the Alabama lineup made the adjustment in the series final and only struck out twice. 

Storms got the best of senior Kaylee Tow on Saturday, but on Sunday Tow flipped the script with a 3-for-3 day at the plate and was one of the Crimson Tide batters to draw a walk.