By: Adam Baranovsky

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Montana Fouts and a no-hitter. A tail as old as time. Fouts continued her dominance today picking up a win against South Carolina by recording her second no-hitter of the season, her first in conference play, and the fourth of her career. She finished the day with ten K’s with just two walks on 98 pitches.

Head coach Patrick Murphy had high praise for Fouts after the game.

“It’s unreal what she does for us, especially on the second day that she’s seen them. I don’t know what else to say about her, it’s unreal. Whenever I speak to JC clubs, rotary groups, alumni groups, I always say, you have to see her pitch live at least once. She’s our version of Tua,” Murphy said.

The offense started slow but Ally Shipman got the scoring started and  for Alabama with an RBI single in the third inning with bases loaded. Jenna Johnson followed right up with an RBI single into left field to put Alabama up 2-0. Then, Bailey Dowling continued the scoring for the Crimson Tide by recording a sacrifice fly to right field to put Alabama up 3-0 with two outs.

Finally, Johnson was able to stay in a run-down long enough to give Shipman just enough time to score from third to make it 4-0 and the only scores of the game from the both teams.

Alabama improves to 28-11 (6-5 SEC) on the season after their second SEC series win and their second SEC win at Rhoads Stadium this season.

Alabama Softball Game two vs South Carolina

It was a day of low scoring for both the Alabama Crimson Tide and South Carolina, combining for five or fewer runs in both matchups.

Alabama’s offense was virtually nonexistent all day in the loss, besides the solo home run by Ashley Prange in the third inning marking her team-leading 12th home run and 34th RBI. This is the teams third loss in the SEC failing to score more than one run in a game and the fourth loss all season when failing to do that.

The bigger questions still lie as to who will be Fouts’ primary backup will be after the Crimson Tide have lost five of the last eight games when Fouts does not start. Most importantly, the team has lost three out of their last four in SEC play all season when Fouts does not start.

Alabama has struggled to close out series’ in the SEC after winning the first two, and head coach Patrick Murphy emphasized the point on being able to close it out.

“You don’t get many opportunities to sweep in the SEC, but we have to do a better job scoring more runs in the third game of series’ when winning the first two. We have to score more runs. We have to take advantage of the opportunity to sweep, especially when we only give up three runs,” Murphy said.

Alabama is falls to 28-12 (6-6 SEC) on the season and will take travel to Birmingham on Tuesday to face in-state foe Samford on Tuesday at 6 p.m. C.T. Alabama’s next SEC series comes against Mississippi State next Friday April 14, in Starkville at 4 p.m C.T.

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