University of Kentucky softball coach Rachel Lawson talked a good game this week about her team’s ability to face a raucous crowd on the road in an NCAA Tournament super regional.
For three innings Friday in Tuscaloosa, Lawson looked prescient. Super-senior pitcher Autumn Humes calmly mowed through Alabama’s first nine batters as Kentucky built a two-run advantage, and anything seemed possible.
The Crimson Tide had other ideas.
Three straight singles and a bases-clearing triple in the fourth inning provided the spark Alabama was looking for, and the hosts went on to defeat Kentucky 4-3 in the opener of their best-of-three weekend series.
“Really proud of how the team competed,” Lawson said afterward. “Overall we did a great job offensively. … It really came down to that dreaded one inning you hope doesn’t come.”
This weekend’s winner advances to the Women’s College World Series June 3-9 in Oklahoma City, Okla.
No. 14 NCAA Tournament seed Kentucky (43-15) and No. 3 seed Alabama (49-7) meet Saturday afternoon and again Sunday, if necessary, in Tuscaloosa.
Kentucky is playing in a super regional for the fourth year in a row and for the seventh time in eight years but has not been to a College World Series since 2014, its only appearance.
Lawson’s pregame confidence stemmed from the fact Kentucky had split its previous four games against the Crimson Tide this season.
These teams were so evenly matched that, despite Alabama’s four-run inning, the Wildcats refused to go away.
Renee Abernathy’s home run to center field with one out in the top of the seventh — her second of the day — gave Kentucky life, cutting the Crimson Tide’s lead in half at 4-3.
Humes then drove a single up the middle and Rylea Smith tapped an infield single on a 3-2 pitch. Miranda Stoddard was retired on a fly ball to center for UK’s second out. That brought up Kentucky star Kayla Kowalik, one of the nation’s best hitters this season, but Alabama shrewdly walked her intentionally to load the bases.
Kentucky’s Tatum Spangler worked Alabama ace and Kentucky native Montana Fouts to a 3-1 count, then fouled off a tension-filled pitch to go to 3-2. Fouts squeezed a called third strike over the outside part of the plate to retire Spangler to end the game, sending Alabama’s sellout crowd into a frenzy.
“The game doesn’t get too much tighter than that.” Lawson said of Spangler’s final at-bat. “She just didn’t swing. I didn’t see the pitch. .. . that was a tough situation, tough pitch.”
Things began much more calmly for the Crimson Tide.
Humes (22-9) retired Alabama’s first nine batters in order Friday, striking out four of them, including the side in order in the second inning.
Meanwhile, Kentucky’s offense was able to get to the Crimson Tide’s Fouts, Kentucky’s 2018 Miss Softball from East Carter High School. The last time the Wildcats faced Fouts, the intimidating 6-foot-1 junior struck out 15 UK batters in Alabama’s 5-1 SEC Tournament win two weeks ago.
On Friday, UK scored a run in the third inning and another in the fourth.
Smith started the third with a single but was erased when Stoddard reached on a fielder’s choice. Stoddard stole second base but Kowalik struck out. With two outs, Spangler singled up the middle to drive home Stoddard with the game’s first run.
With two outs in the fourth, Kentucky’s Abernathy reached a two-strike rise-ball from Fouts on the outside part of the plate and drove it deep over the center field fence for a no-doubt solo home run and a 2-0 UK lead.
At that point, doubt began to creep through the quiet crowd at Tuscaloosa’s Rhoads Stadium. Alabama looked rattled, and a confident Kentucky was putting unexpected pressure on its ace.
Fouts (25-4) regrouped to escape the fourth inning by striking out Humes looking.
Humes forced a groundout to Alabama’s first batter in the fourth, running her streak to 10 straight batters retired to start the game.
At that point, the Tide turned.
Bailey Hemphill drove a hard single down the left-field line that flicked off the glove of a high-reaching Stoddard at third. Kaylee Tow then tapped a slow roller to shortstop and beat out an infield single. Jenna Johnson followed with a single up the middle to load the bases.
KB Sides lined a triple over the head of Abernathy in straight-away center to clear the bases and give Alabama a lead it would not lose.
Humes tried to limit the damage by striking out Savannah Woodard, but Maddie Morgan then smacked a two-out single through the right side to score Sides and make it 4-2.
After Fouts struck out Humes to end the fourth, the Alabama star went on to retire the Wildcats in order in the fifth and sixth before being pushed to the limit in the final frame.
Fouts allowed seven hits on the day and struck out 11.
Humes also went the distance, giving up six hits and striking out nine.
“There were two great pitchers, two great offenses battling it out today,” Lawson said. “Games like that are a bummer because I thought we played well. We didn’t play a perfect game but we played well.
“We did for the most part what we set out to do. … That’s all you can ask for.”
Saturday
Kentucky at Alabama
What: Game 2 of NCAA Softball Tournament best-of-three super-regional series
When: 2 p.m.
Where: Tuscaloosa, Ala.
TV: ESPN
Records: No. 14 seed Kentucky 43-15, No. 3 seed Alabama 49-7
At stake: Super-regional winner advances to Women’s College World Series
Discover more from Today Headline
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.