TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For the 19th time in 20 postseasons, Alabama softball is headed to an NCAA super regional. The Crimson Tide swept its way through the Tuscaloosa Regional this weekend, beating Virginia Tech, 3-2 on Sunday.
Alabama (40-21), which was awarded the No. 15 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, will travel to No. 2 national seed Oklahoma (48-7) in the Norman Super Regional next week. The Crimson Tide won two of three games against the Sooners in Tuscaloosa last month.
Rain delayed the start of Sunday’s game by three hours. A pitching duel between Alabama’s Catelyn Riley and Virginia Tech’s Emma Lemley delayed the offense between both teams until the fifth inning, when the Tide capitalized on another two-out rally.
Salen Hawkins got things started for Alabama with a single through the left side before a perfectly executed bunt from Brooke Ellestad put runners on first and second with no outs. Two batters later, Abby Duchscherer walked to load the bases with one out.
Alabama looked as though it might come away with nothing after Larissa Preuitt popped out to left. However, a four-pitch walk by Audrey Vadagriff finally put the Tide on the board.
From there, Lauren Johnson provided the clutch hitting Alabama had been missing for most of the day, blooping a single to score two more and put the Tide up 3-0. Johnson finished the day 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.
"She's very gritty, she's very competitive." Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said of Johnson. “I just feel like good things are going to happen when she’s up to bat. I think everybody on the team feels that way. She’s shown that consistently throughout this year and last year. She’s just like that pest in the box. Something good is going to happen when you put it in play, and that’s what she does.”
That was all the support Riley needed. The Ole Miss transfer pitched 6⅓ innings, giving up two earned runs on eight hits while striking out three batters. Riley survived two-out rallies from Virginia Tech in the second, third and fourth innings, stranding six Hokies baserunners during that span.
“She made really good pitches,” Murphy said of Riley. “And it seemed like she was pretty economical. I don’t know how many pitches she threw, but it seemed like she was pretty quick. … For the most part, she hit her spots, got ahead. I mean they’re a good-hitting team, you saw how many balls that kind of hung up in the air. She made pitches when she needed to, and we made plays when we needed to.”
Alabama also had Riley’s back in the field. With one out and a runner on first in the bottom of the sixth, Duchscherer snared a line drive at first base before diving back toward the bag to double off the runner to end the inning.
After getting a groundout to begin the bottom of the seventh inning, Riley was struck by a line-drive single up the middle from Virginia Tech pinch hitter Michelle Chatfield. From there, Rachel Castine belted a two-run home run to left to cut Alabama’s lead to 3-2.
Virginia Tech’s rally would end there, as Alabama brought in ace pitcher Jocelyn Briski to close out the game. The sophomore struck out NCAA home runs leader Cori McMillan before getting Jordan Lynch to pop out behind the plate to end the game.
“That was very confident Briski,” Murphy said. “That was a great sequence of pitches, too. Obviously we all know [McMillan’s] a good hitter, so that was a big out. And for [Briski] not to drag it along was unreal.”
Sunday's game was the fourth meeting between Alabama and Virginia Tech this season. Three of those have been decided by one run. The Tide beat the Hokies 4-3 on Saturday to advance to the championship round of the regional.
