Alabama
Mercer
Alabama Softball Wins Two Shutouts, Osorio Throws No-Hitter
2/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
ATLANTA - Alabama softball shut out its two opponents Saturday at the Panther Invitational, including a no-hitter from Alexis Osorio in the opener.
Alabama (9-1) pitching was stingy in the circle against both Mercer (3-3) and Georgia State (3-6), shutting them out with just four hits and 15 strikeouts. All four hits came from the Panthers, as Osorio threw a no-hitter against the Bears in the opener, just one hit-by-pitch away from a perfect game. Offensively, Chandler Dare posted two multi-hit games, going a combined 5-8 from the plate with a pair of doubles and three RBIs. Alabama found a power surge on Saturday, blasting three home runs courtesy of Leona Lafaele, Reagan Dykes and Peyton Grantham after tallying just two in the season's first eight games.
GAME ONE: ALABAMA 7, MERCER 0 *NO-HITTER*
Osorio (1-0) was nearly perfect in Saturday's opener against Mercer, throwing her second career no-hitter with just one base runner allowed in the shutout. The no-hitter is the 29th in program history and already the second this season for Alabama after throwing a combined no-hitter on Wednesday against UAB. Osorio previously threw a no-hitter on Feb. 15, 2015 against Pacific. The top three in the Tide order went a combined 5-11 with seven RBIs, including Dykes' first career home run as part of a 2-3 day batting third.
Alabama took a one-run lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Dare but broke the game open with a five-run second. Demi Turner got things started with a bases-loaded double, driving in three to make it a 4-0 game. Dare followed with an RBI double in the next at-bat to score Turner before Dykes hit an RBI single to score Dare and make it 6-0.
A fifth-inning solo homer by Dykes stretched the lead to 7-0 but Alabama could not add another to force the run-rule victory. After going 15-up, 15-down through five innings, Mercer's Kaytlin Haney was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth and erase the perfect game. Osorio rebounded to retire the next three batters and then did the same in the bottom of the seventh to end the game and cap the no-hitter.
For Mercer, Maxine Rodriguez (1-1) gutted out a complete-game effort in the loss. Only two of her seven runs allowed were earned, as the defense committed four costly errors behind her.
GAME TWO: ALABAMA 9, GEORGIA STATE 0 (6 INNINGS)
The formula stayed the same in Saturday's second game, as potent offense combined with a stellar performance by Sydney Littlejohn (2-1) helped the Tide secure a 9-0 shutout over Georgia State in six innings. Dare and Lafaele both had three hits in the win, including a sixth-inning homer for Lafaele. Grantham went 2-4 batting seventh in the order, scoring twice and smashing a three-run homer to help the Tide pull away late.
Littlejohn earned the complete-game win, striking out a season-high seven batters with just four hits allowed. Panther starter Taylor Thorpe (1-1) exited after 4.1 innings with seven runs, six earned, credited to her in the loss.
With one out and two in scoring position in the top of the second, Andrea Hawkins hit a slow-rolling single back to the pitcher to score Lafaele from third. With runners now at the corners, Kallie Case lifted a fly ball to deep center field that allowed Grantham to tag up and score on the sacrifice fly as the Tide now led, 2-0.
RBI singles by Lafaele and Dare in the third and fourth innings doubled Alabama's lead to 4-0 and Grantham's three-run homer in the top of the fifth swelled it to 7-0. Alabama stranded two in scoring position as they couldn't induce the five-inning run rule, but a two-run homer by Lafaele in the sixth coupled with a scoreless bottom half ended the game early as Alabama took home the run-rule victory, 9-0.
Alabama concludes its weekend at the Panther Invitational with a rematch against Maryland (2-6) on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 9 a.m. CT.
