STARKVILLE — Mississippi State softball had its work cut out for it in the bottom of the seventh inning against Alabama starter Montana Fouts in Friday’s 4-3 loss against the No. 14 Crimson Tide.
To that point, Fouts had allowed one run and three hits, keeping the Bulldogs in check, but they found life in the bottom-half.
After a two-out walk to catcher Riley Hull, in stepped shortstop Madisyn Kennedy, who took a 1-0 fastball over the fence in left-center, cutting a 4-1 lead to 4-3. It gave Mississippi State life, which carried over into the next at-bat, a double from Nadia Barbary.
Head coach Samantha Ricketts chose to bring in Jackie McKenna to pinch hit, who worked the count full, but chased a high fastball as the Tide took the series opener.
“It was good to see some fight,” Ricketts said. “We knew it was going to be another fight and she’s one of the best in the country. We had to be on our A game. It was good to see us battle until the end and have some better at-bats than we’ve really seen in the last few weekends.”
With an All-American pitcher on the mound, scoring more than four runs would be a challenge for Mississippi State (23-17, 3-9 SEC), but with a runner on second and two outs in the seventh, a win was on the minds of the Bulldog dugout and fans at Nusz Park.
Kennedy didn’t miss her pitch against Fouts, and it took just one pitch to turn the game around and put MSU in the driver’s seat.
“We’ve prepared for her in practice all week, so I think we were really confident coming in knowing the pitches she was going to throw,” Kennedy said. “Just having confidence in our at-bats and in the person behind us that no matter what the situation was, someone was going to get it done”
On the mound, the duo of Kenley Hawk and Reis Beuerlein kept the Bulldogs in the game, allowing seven hits to Alabama (30-12, 7-6 SEC).
Ricketts mentioned keeping Hawk in a bit too long as she was taken out in the third inning, but Beuerlein held down the fort the rest of the way, giving up one earned run and four hits in 4.2 innings pitched.
“I thought Reis did a good job of settling things down,” Ricketts said. “She attacked, she was ahead pretty much every batter and it’s been something we’ve desperately needed out of the bullpen.”
The end result wasn’t what Mississippi State was looking for as the Bulldogs have now lost nine-straight Southeastern Conference games, but the fight is what Ricketts has been searching for, that added energy late.
At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the Bulldogs will look to take advantage of that and end the skid.
“That’s definitely the message, come out early swinging like we’ve finished,” Ricketts said.
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