Alabama softball wasn’t immediately successful on offense. Facing Jackson State to begin the NCAA Tournament in Tuscaloosa on Friday, the Crimson Tide didn’t score for the first two innings.
Then, in the third inning, Larissa Preuitt got to third on a three-base throwing error by the Tigers, with no outs. Unfortunately for the Tide, the next two batters went down, and it was in danger of coming up empty again.
“I probably can’t say anything, what I told her,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said of his discussion with Kali Heivilin as she came to the plate. “Just get the run in. We need this run. It was a basically three-base error… We needed to take advantage of that.”
Heivilin singled to short, bringing in one run. Then she stole second, Marlie Giles walked, and Salen Hawkins doubled in both of them, before Brooke Ellestad hit a single to make it 4-0.
The single that scored the first run earned Heivilin Murphy’s game MVP award.
“That helped a lot for getting things going,” Hawkins said of Heivilin’s hit after the game. “But also, I was a little upset that I didn’t come through in the first inning and I really wanted to do my job that time, get us ahead and keep it going.”
Alabama was off to the races after the third. It added two runs each in the fourth and fifth, with a Jackson State wild pitch scoring the final run to end the game after five.
Emily Winstead got her first NCAA Tournament win in the circle for Alabama. She finished with just one hit and one walk in four innings of action, before Alea Johnson entered to finish it out.
Afterward, Murphy was asked whether he was more proud of the lack of hits or walks.
“Probably only one walk,” Murphy said. “It’s hard to throw a no-hitter, or give up no hits, but we’ve been struggling a little bit with walks, so one, I’ll take that all day long.”
Now, Alabama will face Virginia Tech on Saturday. On paper, the Hokies are the best team in the regional besides Alabama, and the two teams split a pair of February games in the Easton Bama Bash.
Virginia Tech beat Belmont in Friday’s early game. Murphy downplayed the importance of the two early-season matchups.
“It was February but it seems like three years ago,” he said. “They’re way different. We’re way different. It’s probably a completely different lineup, the whole thing. We’ve seen them twice, with a factor of, they’ve been here. They don’t have a shock factor either. So, it’s going to be a great game.
Alabama and Virginia Tech will face off in the Tuscaloosa regional’s earliest game Friday at Rhoads Stadium. The Crimson Tide and Hokies are scheduled for an 11 a.m. CT first pitch.
