Murphy Earns Career Win 700; Softball Sweeps Mississippi State

Sunday, April 17

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

1:30 p.m

Alabama

Mississippi State

Kelsi Dunne broke the Alabama career strikeout record Sunday afternoon.

Murphy Earns Career Win 700; Softball Sweeps Mississippi State

4/17/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball

April 17, 2011

Box Score

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy earned his 700th career victory and senior Kelsi Dunne set the career strikeout record behind a 5-2 win over Mississippi State, Sunday afternoon at Rhoads Stadium. With the win, Alabama claims the sweep over MSU and improves to 41-5 overall and 15-4 in Southeastern Conference play.

"I've never played a game but being able to have consistent players over 14 years has attributed to that," Murphy said referring to his 700th career victory. "It was great to have all the alumni in town this weekend as well to share in this moment."

Dunne turned in another stellar performance and improves her record to 20-2 on the season. Dunne gave up just one earned run off three hits while striking out 11 batters. Dunne retired 12 straight batters starting in the third inning. Junior Amanda Locke went 2-for-3 with a home run and two runs batted in.

After Mississippi State opened the scoring to start off the contest, Alabama answered with two of its own. Locke got the Tide going with a sharp single to center to score junior Jennifer Fenton. An error with two outs in the inning enabled senior Whitney Larsen to score to give Alabama the early 2-1 advantage.

Locke accounted for another run, this time in a big way as she smacked a moon-shot over the scoreboard in left-center to give Alabama a 3-1 lead in the fourth. The home run was her seventh of the season.

In the fifth inning Dunne made history when she struck out Chelsea Raines to become the all-time career strikeout leader at Alabama. The punchout was the 1114th of her career which passed the record of 1113, formally held by All-American, Stephanie VanBrakle. She finished the game with 1115 for her career.

In the sixth, junior Kendall Dawson belted her second home run of the season when she drilled the scoreboard to extend the Alabama lead to 5-1. Junior Cassie Reilly-Boccia singled through the left side and was pinch ran for by sophomore Keima Davis to start the inning.

Alabama will travel down to Gainesville, Fla., to take on the No. 10 Florida Gators in a three-game series. The contests on Saturday and Sunday will be televised nationally by ESPN2 and ESPN, respectively. First pitch inside Katie Seashole Presley Stadium will be at 4 p.m. CDT, on Friday, April 22.

Alabama 5, Mississippi State 2 (Apr 17, 2011 at TUSCALOOSA, Ala.)
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Mississippi State... 100 000 1 -  2  3  1      (21-24, 8-11 SEC)
Alabama............. 200 102 X -  5  8  2      (41-5, 15-4 SEC)
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Pitchers: Mississippi State - Stephanie Becker and Sam Lenahan. Alabama - Kelsi Dunne and
Kendall Dawson.
Win-Kelsi Dunne(20-2)  Loss-Stephanie Becker(6-5) 
T-2:05  A-3064
HR UA - Amanda Locke (7); Kendall Dawson (2).
Weather: Sunny, 68, Wind: ENE at 1 mph