Tide battles back to an ugly win
Mar 30, 2008 at 12:01 AM Mar 30, 2008 at 1:23 AM
TUSCALOOSA | Nearly everybody walked.
University of Alabama head softball coach Patrick Murphy got run.
And in the end, the second-ranked Crimson Tide plodded to an 8-6 victory over Ole Miss on Saturday at the Alabama Softball Complex.
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Alabama (29-3 overall, 10-2 in Southeastern Conference play) spotted the Rebels two-run leads in the first and second innings, courtesy of a shaky pitching start by senior Chrissy Owens, but the Tide trudged its way back to an ugly victory in front of a crowd of about 2,200.
The second game of the doubleheader was postponed by weather until today at noon with Alabama up 3-0 in the bottom of the third inning. The third game of the series will start approximately 20 minutes after the end of the conclusion of that game.
Owens allowed a two-run home run to Ole Miss third baseman Lauren Grill in the first inning, but the Tide answered with a four-run outburst in the bottom of the first, keyed by RBI singles from second baseman Lauren Parker and catcher Ashley Holcombe for a 4-2 Tide lead.
The Rebels then began a walk-a-thon, drawing four free bases from Owens in the top of the second and stringing together three singles to go ahead 6-4. Alabama freshman pitcher Kelsi Dunne (13-3) came to the rescue out of the bullpen with the bases loaded to put out the fire. She struck out 11 batters in 5 2/3 no-hit innings.
'I've come in a few other times [in relief], but I don't think the bases were loaded,' she said. 'We do that in practice. We practice quick warm-ups in case we get into situations like that.
'You can't look at it any differently or it becomes a mind game. I was ready to go.'
Alabama crawled back into the contest, with senior outfielder Jordan Praytor drawing a walk to lead off the bottom of the second and moving around to third on another walk and a hit batter. She scored on Holcombe's sacrifice fly to center to make it 6-5.
The Tide tied it up in the third when third baseman Kelley Montalvo walked with one out and scored on Praytor's RBI double.
Praytor credited her teammates with some scouting to help her come up with the big hit off losing pitcher Becky Nye (6-7).
'They had picked up the changeup and that was key,' she said. 'It should by half my hit and half theirs.'
Murphy patiently waited for an opportunity to plate the winning runs. It came in the sixth, when Praytor led off with the double and came home when outfielder Dani Woods singled to left, with Praytor scoring and Woods moving all the way to third on a throwing error.
'Coach Murphy had told me to draw the throw [from the outfield] and I rounded [third base] pretty hard. We watched the throw and it got away,' Praytor said.
Pinch runner Katie Johnson entered for Woods and scored an insurance run when freshman Cat Dozier stole second.
'I thought we did a good job of chipping away and tying it, and then we sat on the tie for a while,' Murphy said. 'As soon as we saw what was going to happen in terms of balls and strikes we had the take on all the time.'
Murphy challenged the strike zone of umpire Chad Stears later in the inning and was ejected from the game.
'I thought it was justified,' he said. 'It seems like to me it was some iffy situations. We've got knowledgeable fans and they usually don't react that way if it's a good call.'
UA players were happy to bail out Owens on a day when she had a bad outing after being honored on her personal senior day.
'As a team we needed to pick her up,' Johnson said.
The upperclassmen also didn't want to let a game slip away against Ole Miss (15-18, 0-12), which is at the bottom of the SEC standings.
'When we were freshmen we dropped a game to Ole Miss,' Praytor said. 'One more win would have secured the [league] championship. You need to beat people that you're supposed to beat or it comes back to bite you.'
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