Just as it has in most of its wins this season, Alabama softball flexed its muscles by hitting three home runs in its 8-2 win against Mississippi State on Saturday at Rhoads Stadium.
Alabama (36-1, 7-1 SEC) did half of its damage in the first inning.
With one out, KB Sides singled to center. She scored two pitches later when Bailey Hemphill sent a ball to the second row of the Brickyard in right field. Two batters later, Reagan Dykes snuck a ball over the left-centerfield fence for her third home run of the year.
“You have to hit to win,” Sides said. “Either way the other team is going to hit to win at some point, so you have to hit anyway.”
The Crimson Tide took advantage of Bulldog mistakes to score three of its four remaining runs.
With runners on second and third, Mississippi State pitcher Grace Fagan, threw a wild pitch that trickled far enough away to score Maddie Morgan.
With a runner on third in the fourth inning, Sides once again singled to center, driving in a run. Mississippi State’s right fielder overthrew her target, advancing Sides to third. Just like Morgan scored in the second, Sides took off for home when the pitch hit the dirt and scooted away from the Bulldog catcher.
Alabama plated its eighth run when Morgan sent a pitch over the right-center field wall.
Senior Courtney Gettins dominated the Bulldogs in the circle. She went the distance, allowing two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts.
It took the first two innings for the senior to settle in, as she allowed both runs and five hits in the first two frames.
“We put a big emphasis on short-term memory,” Gettins said. “When your offense is going out there and hitting bombs like that, it’s just a confidence booster.”
She was on cruise control through the middle of the game, retiring nine straight batters spanning from the end of the second till the fifth, when a full-count walk ended the streak.
The only other hits she allowed came in the top of the seventh. The Bulldogs put two runners on to start the inning, but Gettins got out of the inning by forcing a pop-out to first, a slow rolling ground ball to third and a weak line drive to short.
“Almost every time I looked up, it was 0-2,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “She pitches fast and when she throws that many strikes, everything just goes faster and crisper.”
Alabama will try for the sweep Sunday, as the series finale starts at 1:30 p.m.
