A Perfect Finale
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No hits. No walks. No errors. No runs allowed, and a walk-off bomb to run-rule a Southeastern Conference rival.
There's not a much better way to end a series, and that's exactly how it played out for No. 4 Alabama against No. 18 Georgia on Monday night.
Just one day after throwing 131 pitches in the complete-game win against, Lexi Kilfoyl bounced right back to throw the first perfect game of her career as the Crimson Tide beat the Bulldogs 9-0.
She had a season-high 10 strikeouts, and it only took her 69 pitches to get the job done.
When asked what was working for her tonight, the answer was simple for Kilfoyl: everything.
"It was dropping like I know how to make it drop," Kilfoyl said. "The curve was looking good. Steph [van Brakle Prothro] was calling all the right pitches at all the right times. So it was just so... everything was perfect."
Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said that the series finale was supposed to be a group pitching effort. Normally, Montana Fouts gets two starts a weekend in SEC play, but when Kilfoyl kept putting zeroes up on the board, he couldn't take her out.
Kilfoyl said she was a little surprised when she found out she was getting the start after throwing so many pitches on Sunday, but the adrenaline of the game kept her going.
Georgia (31-7, 5-4 SEC) came into the series as one of the top offensive teams in the league, leading the SEC in home runs and batting average. Kilfoyl was able to keep the Bulldogs off-balance in the back-to-back wins.
"They're a great hitting team and for her to do that, that's a hell of a feat," Murphy said. "I mean, her pitches were moving. The thing that I really loved was there was a lot of bats where it was a K with three pitches. That has not happened a lot this year. So she was on the money, hitting her spots, and fooling them.
"When you see somebody trying to guess, you know the pitcher is doing something really, really well."
Kilfoyl said she realized around the third inning that she had a perfect game going, but did everything she could to keep it out of her head and focus on attacking the batters. Murphy realized in the bottom of the sixth when Alabama leadoff hitter Dallis Goodnight was up for the fourth time, and he looked down at his scorecard and saw that the Georgia nine-hole hitter had only been up once.
With a 6-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, Shipman stepped to the plate with two runners on and crushed her seventh home run of the year over the left-field wall for the run-rule victory that clinched the perfect game for Kilfoyl.
"I don't know if y'all saw, but I literally climbed up on that fence," Kilfoyl said about Shipman's game-winning home run. "I didn't want to go out there, but if I had to, I would. But I knew she was going to come up with something big tonight and she definitely did with five RBIs."
Alabama Athletics
Alabama Athletics
The game was looking like a pitchers duel in Tuscaloosa through the first four innings. Neither team had managed to scratch a run across. Alabama got close in the bottom of the fourth, but left the bases loaded on a strikeout from Aubrey Barnhart.
The very next inning, Alabama once again had the bases loaded with two outs with Shipman at bat. She came up in a similar scenario during the Game 1 loss against the Bulldogs and struck out.
Two days later, the catcher got her redemptive moment.
Shipman singled up the middle to bring the two of the six runs Alabama would score in the inning, all with two outs.
Rhoads Stadium has a saying imprinted on the left field foul pole that says "2 Outs? So What!!!" and the Crimson Tide embodied that spirit again in the fifth.
In total, Alabama sent 11 batters to the plate in the at-bat, scoring six runs with RBI-hits from Shipman, Bailey Dowling and Jenna Johnson.
"We definitely just got on a roll there," Dowling said. "It's funny because we all just communicate between each batter, and we have a little chart in the dugout of what the pitchers throw, and so just having that knowledge when you get up there and then trusting everybody it was it was fun, really fun."
After coming back to win the series after dropping the opener, Alabama (31-5, 8-4 SEC) moved into a three-way tie for first place with Kentucky and Arkansas, and Tennessee, Florida and Auburn all within a game in the SEC standings.
"I thought before the game, obviously you've got to win a series at home," Murphy said. "I don't care how. If it was 1-0 in 12 innings or 9-0 it doesn't matter."
