When the Alabama softball team got punched in the mouth Tuesday night, Courtney Gettins stopped the bleeding.
Sydney Booker and Bailey Hemphill punched back.
The 15th-ranked Crimson Tide rallied from falling behind twice to pound UAB for a 10-5 victory at Rhoads Stadium.
The game wasn’t pretty, but it was a salve for an Alabama team short on pitching and lacking at the plate.
With ace Alexis Osorio out indefinitely after sustaining a concussion last weekend, Gettins was the only pitcher available besides starter Madison Preston, a left-handed freshman who got knocked out of the contest in the second inning.
UA was down 3-2 when Gettins (8-2) entered. She allowed two hits with a walk and one strikeout in 5 2/3 innings the rest of the way, giving up one earned run.
“They had five hits (at the time) and we had one,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “She didn’t give up another hit until the seventh. She did her job tremendously.”
First baseman Hemphill crushed a three-run home run to right field in the second inning and outfielder Merris Schroder singled in another run to make it a four-run turn at bat that put UA up 6-3.
The Crimson Tide (20-7) added three more runs in the fourth, with shortstop Booker driving in a pair of runs with a triple and scoring on Elissa Brown’s single. Booker added another triple to drive in another run in the seventh, tying a school single-game record.
Brown, Demi Turner and Booker had two hits apiece.
“I’ve been slumping really hard,” Booker said. “That was nice.
“We scored runs a few times. We came through in certain situations but we need to do it more often for sure.”
Things could have been better for Alabama, which, like UAB, committed three errors. UA also left 10 runners on base.
“We had bases loaded and no outs in the first (inning),” Murphy said, “and we score on a hit-by-pitch and an error. I want a double in the gap. I want an earned run. Unfortunately it didn’t happen.”
UAB fell to 10-20-1.
Alabama will host Ole Miss this weekend in a three-game series starting Friday at 6:30 p.m.

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