Alabama shuts out Texas for regional title

TUSCALOOSA — The No. 3 ranked Alabama softball team earned its seventh regional title and fifth in a row by downing Texas 7-0 Sunday afternoon in the championship game at the NCAA Softball Tuscaloosa Regional.

The Crimson Tide turned an NCAA-record five double plays and banged out 11 hits to advance to its fifth straight NCAA Super Regional. After the regional win, Alabama improves to 50-9 overall while Texas finishes its season at 40-20.

“It was a very entertaining game,” said Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy. “I think that’s the first time in my career here that the fans wanted the game to go seven innings. The coaching staff certainly didn’t, but you could tell they wanted us to go out and keep playing defense. What a great game by the defense. Charlotte (Morgan) got ground balls and the defense took care of the rest. That was very impressive.”

Alabama continued its early scoring when Charlotte Morgan connected on her first home run of the regional, drilling a two-out shot off the light pole in right-center to plate Kelley Montalvo and hand the Tide an early 2-0 lead.

“One thing I love about being a pitcher and hitter is being able to come back and help the team on offense,” said Morgan. “Being able to get the hit at that point in the game was awesome. Our goal is always to score in the first inning and every inning. There was a runner in scoring position and that’s all I was thinking. It feels great to be able to contribute to my team offensively.”

Freshman Cassandra Reilly-Boccia then connected on the first postseason home run of her career when she cleared the centerfield wall to open the bottom of the fourth and extend the Alabama lead to 3-0.

Alabama added another run in the fourth with two outs. Amanda Locke drew a walk and then was pinch run for by Jennifer Fenton. The newcomer promptly swiped second and then scored on a single through the right side off the bat of Whitney Larsen.

The Crimson Tide continued its offensive onslaught when Locke drilled a double down the left field line to score Reilly-Boccia from second to extend the lead to 5-0. Kellie Eubanks then followed suit with a hit down the left field line to score Ashley Holcombe and Locke.

The Crimson Tide gave Morgan more defensive help than she could ever imagine, breaking an NCAA record with five double plays. Oddly four of the five came by the way of 5-4-3.

Brittany Rogers led Alabama at the plate with a 3-for-4 effort. Montalvo batted 2-for-2 with a run while Eubanks batted 2-for-3 with two RBI. Reilly-Boccia added two runs while Morgan drove in two.

Morgan (17-6) earned the complete-game win after scattering seven hits. The southpaw struck out two and walked none to earn the Tide’s third win all by the way of a different pitcher in the Tuscaloosa Regional.

The Tide will welcome Jacksonville State to the Alabama Softball Complex during the postseason for the second consecutive season when the two teams compete in the Tuscaloosa Super Regional. The NCAA will announce the dates and times after the regional play has concluded.

“The conference tournament is step one, this [Regionals] is step two, and Super Regionals is step three,” said Murphy. “We preached from the beginning that we wanted to peak at the right time and I think it’s playing out that we are. We have different people coming through and hopefully we can keep moving up.”