No. 5 Alabama softball crushes MTSU 12-5 in second game of NCAA regional

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy believes there are three keys in winning a postseason softball game: a strong start from the pitcher, good team defense and a key hit. The Crimson Tide didn't have any of those three elements to start Saturday's game against Middle Tennessee State, but offensive explosions in the third and fourth innings helped No. 5 Alabama softball pick up the all-important second win at the Tuscaloosa Regional.

The Crimson Tide waltzed into elimination Sunday after a 12-5 win over the Blue Raiders. The victory is the Crimson Tide's 67th in regional play giving it a .858 winning percentage in the first round of the NCAA Softball tournament.

Here are a few takeaways from Alabama's win on Saturday.

With questions looming over which Alabama pitcher would step in the absence of Montana Fouts, Alex Salter got her chance to step up into that role and struggled on Saturday. In her first appearance in the 2023 Tuscaloosa Regional, the junior was chased after 2 1/3 innings of work where she allowed four runs on five hits.

Salter's big inning came in the bottom of the third as back-to-back walks and an error loaded the bases for MTSU. On the very next batter, the Blue Raiders made Salter pay for a slow start as Anyce Harvey's single tied the game up again after a four-run third inning gave Alabama its first lead of the game.

After pitching a complete-game shutout against LIU on Friday, Jaala Torrence came in relief for Salter. The Dothan, Alabama native was able to get out of the jam despite yielding two unearned runs.

"We'll take it," Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said. "It wasn't the prettiest but I thought Jaala came in and did exactly what we needed her to do because when I give the ball to the reliever I say, 'Leave the score the same.' ... Salter didn't have her best stuff today, but that's why you need a staff at this time of the year because you just never know."

Every postseason run has a few unexpected heroes. In 2019, it was Caroline Hardy's single to center field to drive home the game-winning run against Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. This year the early candidate has been Torrence who has now thrown 11 2/3 scoreless innings at the Tuscaloosa Regional.

The junior dazzled in picking up the sixth shutout of her career and used that performance to propel her to a strong outing in relief against MTSU. With the bases loaded, Torrence kept the bleeding to a minimum and then kept the Blue Raiders off the scoreboard for the next four innings.

MTSU came to Tuscaloosa as the most potent offensive team in Conference USA leading the conference with a .298 team batting average, 253 RBIs and 16 triples. While it showed a bit of that pop through the first three innings, Torrence's pitch speed and location kept the Blue Raiders off balance all afternoon.

"She had off balance a little bit," MTSU head coach Jeff Breeden said. "She does well for them. I mean everybody they got, they got a great team don't get me wrong and she did a good job against us. Hats off to her."

After doing just enough to down LIU on Friday, Alabama's offense needed to re-ignite that spark it found at the SEC Championship Tournament. A four-run third inning gave Alabama its first lead of the afternoon and although it gave the slim lead away in the next half-inning, the offense responded in full force in the top of the fourth.

Kali Heivilin crushed a two-run home run over the left-field wall which is her second long ball of the regional round. The long ball sparked an eight-run, three-hit offensive barrage for the Crimson Tide. The inning also included three two-out walks which not only allowed three more runs to score but kept the bases loaded as Alabama brought up 13 batters to the plate in the inning. It marks the fourth time this season that the Crimson Tide wracked up eight or more runs in an inning.

Alabama senior Bailey Dowling said one of the keys for the explosion was settling down a bit at the plate.

"We kind of talked about it in our meeting after the game (we were) just unstoppable and we weren't going to get out," Dowling said. "I felt like we passed the bat down really good and we were just scoring runs back-to-back-to-back and it was awesome. I think that was the first time we really felt energized and we weren't going to give up."

While Dowling had a team-high four RBIs in the win, there's no player on Alabama with more confidence at the plate than Heivilin. In two games at the Tuscaloosa Regional, she's now 3-for-6 with two home runs and five RBIs.

"I guess I'd say (the ball) is a little big," Heivilin said. "Honestly I'm just going out there having fun and relaxed. Our team goal right now is to go out there and prove that we deserved this No. 5 seed. I think we're all just going out there relaxed and just having fun.

Alabama advances to the regional final and will face the winner of the first elimination game on Sunday.