By: Brett Greenberg
TUSCALOOSA, AL. - Alabama softball continued its dominance at Rhoads Stadium on Friday. It just took a while.
The Crimson Tide defeated Kentucky 4-3 in Game 1 of a Super Regional in Tuscaloosa after trailing 2-0.
Alabama (49-7) scored four runs on five hits in the fourth inning against the Wildcats (43-14). Montana Fouts allowed a solo home run in the third and a run in the fourth, but settled in and retired six straight in the fifth and sixth innings.
"Game One is the most important one so it was huge to get the win," said Alabama coach Patrick Murphy. "That game had lots of highs and lows with plenty of turns, but that's to be expected in an all-SEC super regional."
Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Saturday (1 p.m., ESPN). A win by Alabama sends the Crimson Tide to the Women's College World Series. A third and deciding game would be played Sunday at 3 p.m.
Montana Fouts works for it
Fouts worked all game long and saw her pitch count rise to 94 through four innings as Kentucky scored single runs in the third and fourth. The SEC Co-Pitcher of the Year sat the lineup down in order in three of her innings of work and struck out 11 to bring her total to 314 on the year.
Fouts picked up her 25th win of the season and it was her 20th appearance with 10-plus strikeouts and 12th against an SEC opponent.
She finished the game with 134 pitches.
Bats slow to the party, wake up late
The Crimson Tide was hitless through 3.1 innings and did not have a base runner while Kentucky pitcher Autumn Humes retired 10 straight.
Bailey Hemphill got things started for Alabama in the fourth inning with a base hit over third base. Back-to-back singles by Kaylee Tow and Jenna Johnson loaded the bases for KB Sides who tripled to score three runs and give the Crimson Tide their first lead of the game at 3-2. Maddie Morgan extended the lead to 4-2 with an RBI single with two outs.
“Once Bailey got on, I really believed we could get three or four runs that inning,” said Sides. “A lot of credit goes to Kaylee who came up to me before the triple and calmed me down.”
Jenna Johnson went 2-for-3 and scored a run for Alabama.
Wins roll on
Alabama has won 17 games in a row, 15 of which have come against ranked opponents.
Alabama is the only program to play in every Super Regional since it began in 2005 while this year marks the 11th time the Crimson Tide has hosted. Alabama hosted most recently in 2019 when they beat Texas in three games to advance to their first Women's College World Series since 2016.
"I knew ‘Tana would strike her out. I always have confidence in her. No matter the count or who it is, I have total confidence in her," said Sides. "That’s just who she is and the type of competitor she is."
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