Alabama Softball Moves Above .500 in SEC Play with Win Over Mississippi State

Another complete game from Montana Fouts plus a seventh-inning RBI from Jenna Johnson helped the Crimson Tide hang on for the series-opening win in Starkville.

Alabama Athletics

Montana Fouts has been nearly untouchable the last two weekends. For the first time since the Tennessee series, the Alabama pitcher showed a little vulnerability Friday night. 

But thanks to a seventh-inning insurance run on an RBI-single from Jenna Johnson, Alabama held on for the 4-3 win over Mississippi State to open up the series at Nusz Park.

Fouts appeared pretty dominant through the first six innings, allowing just one run on a sacrifice fly. She got the first two outs of the seventh inning relatively easily, but a two-out walk spelled trouble. 

Mississippi State's Madisyn Kennedy blasted a two-run home run to cut the deficit to one run. She was followed by a double that put the tying run in scoring position for the Bulldogs. But Fouts slammed the door on Mississippi State's comeback hopes with her ninth strikeout of the game.

Patrick Murphy switched up his batting order against the Bulldogs. For the first time this season, Ashley Prange was the leadoff hitter for the Crimson Tide. She didn't collect a hit, but did reach base three times, including a leadoff walk in the first inning. 

Alabama (30-12, 7-6 SEC) got the first two batter on to open the game, and Kenleigh Cahalan came in to score on a passed ball to give Alabama the early lead. The Crimson Tide would score two more runs in the third inning after loading the bases. Johnson blooped a hit into right field for an RBI-single, and Emma Broadfoot followed it up with a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-0. 

The Bulldogs (23-17, 3-9) responded in the bottom half of the inning with a sac fly from Paige Cook. That held as the only run for Mississippi State until the rally in the seventh. 

Johnson tacked on another RBI-single in the seventh inning to provide the exact insurance Alabama would need, as the Crimson Tide was finally able to see a run come across for the first time since the third inning. 

"Montana pitched great up until that last inning where things got away a little bit, but she really controlled the game for the first 20 outs," Murphy said in a press release. "The fourth run ended up huge for us. We still left a couple people in scoring position so we need to come through more often, but I think we had traffic on the basepaths almost every inning.”

With the win, Alabama climbs above .500 in SEC play for the first time since the conference opener against Arkansas, and will be back for Game 2 against Mississippi State Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

See also:

Updates: No. 14 Alabama Softball at Mississippi State (Game 1)

Montana Fouts Named to 2023 USA Softball Women’s National Team World Cup Roster

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