Alabama Softball Picks Up 5-2 Road Win at Southern Miss

The Crimson Tide handled business in Mississippi ahead of a big week of games.

With a challenging week ahead, Alabama softball headed to Hattiesburg for a midweek matchup with Southern Miss. Even though the Crimson Tide has four games over the next five days against top-10 teams, it could not afford to overlook the Eagles who have a midweek road win over No. 5 Florida. 

And while it took a little while for the bats to get going, Alabama was able to handle business in Mississippi with a 5-2 win over Southern Miss Tuesday evening. 

After starter Jaala Torrence struggled a little bit in the second inning, the Golden Eagles actually held a 2-1 lead until a Bailey Dowling single up the middle tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth. 

Torrence responded by getting two quick outs in the bottom of the fourth before facing a little more trouble with a two-out walk and single in the tie game. Montana Fouts came in to relieve Torrence and was able to get out of the jam with a strikeout. Fouts picked up the win in relief with 62 pitches thrown over 3.1 innings with five strikeouts.

The Crimson Tide retook the lead in the top of the fifth with an RBI single from Ally Shipman, her team-leading 28th of the year, and never relinquished the lead. The offense was able to add insurance runs in both the sixth and seventh innings with a sac fly from Abby Doerr and RBI-double from Ashley Prange. Shipman and Prange both had two hits in the game. 

In the game, five different players scored runs and five different players had RBIs, which is a positive sign for an offense that had been struggling some over the weekend. 

Alabama improves to 22-2 (1-2 SEC) and heads back to Tuscaloosa for a huge non-conference top-five matchup with Florida State on Wednesday night at 6 before the SEC home opener against Kentucky Friday through Sunday.