NCAA Softball Tuscaloosa Regional: Game Three - Alabama Beats Minnesota, 1-0 in Nine Innings
5/20/2017 5:04:00 PM | Softball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.  – The Alabama Crimson Tide (44-16) beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers (55-4), 1-0 in nine innings Saturday on a bases-loaded walk, to advance to Sunday's 2017 NCAA Softball Tuscaloosa Regional championship game. Minnesota is slated to play in the third game on Saturday in the regional's second elimination game.
In a tense pitchers' duel that saw just six hits and eight and a half innings of shutout play, Alabama loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth. Alabama sophomore Reagan Dykes came to the plate with the bases loaded and stood at the plate with a 3-1 count when ball four sent her to first and advanced freshman Elissa Brown home from third for the game winner.
Junior pitcher Alex Osorio went the distance and picked up the win for Alabama, pushing her season record to 22-7, while senior Sara Groenewegen took the loss for the Gophers, falling for just the third time this season and going to 30-3.
Alabama is slated to return to action Sunday at 1:30 p.m. CT against the winner of Saturday's third game. The length of the Alabama-Minnesota game delayed the start of Saturday's second game between Louisiana Tech and Albany and severe weather in the Tuscaloosa area has delayed it even further.
