Tennessee Wins Slug Fest to Eliminate Alabama from SEC Tournament

Alabama couldn't hold on to a four-run lead in the first inning as the Volunteers hit three home runs to advance to the tournament finals.

Alabama's special run in the SEC Tournament has come to a close. 

The top-seeded Volunteers beat No. 5 Alabama 7-6 Friday night in the SEC Tournament semifinals at Bogle Park in Arkansas. 

Tennessee only had five hits compared to seven for Alabama, but three of the five were home runs, including a grand slam. And the Volunteers needed every single one to take care of the Crimson Tide. 

Alabama couldn't have asked for a much better inning on offense to start off the game. Jenna Johnson got things going with a leadoff single, followed by a base hit from Larissa Preuitt. Tennessee starter, Karlyn Pickens, who was named SEC Freshman of the Year earlier Friday, could not find the strike zone after that. 

Pickens walked three straight batters with a wild pitch mixed in there and was lifted after Alabama took the 2-0 lead. The Crimson Tide added on two more runs to make it 4-0 heading to the bottom half of the opening frame. 

With Montana Fouts unavailable after an injury in Thursday night's win over Arkansas, Alabama had to turn to all three of its other pitchers. 

After Alabama starter Alex Salter got the first two outs on just three pitches, she then struggled to throw strikes. She gave up a double and two walks before Lair Beautae delivered the big blow with a two-out grand slam to tie the game up at 4-4. 

Salter gave up another home run to the nation's leader, Kiki Malloy, the next inning to give up the lead and lasted just two innings before being lifted for Jaala Torrence in the third. 

"There’s three things in high level softball that you need," Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said after the game. "You need a great start, the pitcher to give us a chance to win. You need great team defense, and then you need the timely hitting. And I thought we got two out of three. And that's not good enough against a team like Tennessee. You have to go three for three. And unfortunately, our start wasn't very good."

Torrence gave up a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth to the Volunteers' nine-hole hitter to extend the Tennessee lead to 7-4. Those would be the only runs Torrence allowed in 3.1 innings of relief work before being lifted for Lauren Esman. 

Alabama's home run leader Ashley Prange, answered the next half inning with a two-run blast of her own to cut the deficit back to one run. But the Crimson Tide had only one baserunner over the final two innings as the Volunteers hung on for the one-run win. 

"We found grit, we found passion, we found heart," Johnson said. "I mean, our leader went down, and we had people step up. And it's really cool to see a team come together at the right time and peak at the right time. And we're not going to hang our heads on this loss tonight. We stayed with a really good Tennessee team, and we competed with an Arkansas team last night in a great environment.”

Tennessee had the best pitching staff and ERA in the SEC this season, and Alabama put up more runs on them than any other team but Florida. 

Payton Gottshall came in to relive Pickens in the first inning, and only allowed two runs over the next seven frames.

"She’s a really good pitcher, Freshman of the Year, and didn’t get an out, so that’s a feather in our cap and something that we need to take with us and not hold our heads," Murphy said about Pickens. "But the other part of that is the young lady that came in, we let her kind of get a little too comfortable. And three innings in a row where she shut us out, and that to me was the big part of the game because you know, they punch back and then we didn't do much.”

Now, Alabama awaits NCAA Tournament seeding from Sunday's selection show, but really the bigger storyline is waiting for news about Fouts. She is scheduled to visit the team orthopedic doctor Monday morning to determine her status for the rest of the season. 

"This is what you worked for for 10 months," Murphy said. "And you see what's going on on Sunday night. It never gets old seeing ‘Alabama on the TV screen."