Bama Softball Bests LSU 4-2; Tide Men's Golf Places 3rd At Clemson Invitational; Alabama Baseball Falls To Ole Miss On Sunday; Top-Ranked Alabama Women's Golf Places Second At Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic; Crimson Tide Men's Tennis Upsets Kentucky Wildcats

Bama Softball Bests LSU 4-2

Photo Credit: UA Athletics/Amelia B. Barton

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – The University of Alabama Crimson Tide softball team captured the weekend series with the LSU Tigers by besting the kitties 4-2 on Sunday. It was a Marisa Runyon two-run double that was the difference-maker at Rhoads Stadium in beautiful Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her double in the fifth inning snapped a 2-2 tie and gave her a total of six RBIs in the last five games, picking up at least one hit in four of those five games.

UA head coach Patrick Murphy decided to go with his gut on the call with Runyon, saying, "I felt like Runyon was going to get a hit. I was going to bunt her, but we called a timeout and I told her I had a good feeling about her. It was a really good at-bat and she has shown signs of breaking out over the last couple of games."

Alabama improves to 35-7 overall, 10-5 SEC while LSU falls to 32-9, 8-4 SEC. Crimson Tide ace pitcher Alexis Osorio (18-4) took the complete-game victory, holding the Tigers to just two runs, with just one being earned, on five hits and four walks in front of a sellout crowd of 3,940, Alabama's second crowd above 3,000 this weekend and its fourth of the season.

Bama's Elissa Brown was two-for-three with one run on the day. Chandler Dare stepped up with a one-for-three, one run performance in the contest.

The Tide hosts UAB tomorrow at 6 p.m. CT before heading to Knoxville, Tennessee for a three-game Southeastern Conference series at the 17th-ranked Volunteers beginning on Saturday, April 15th at 5 p.m. CT. All three of the contests with Tennessee will air live on SEC Network.

--------------------------------------------------------

Alabama Men's Golf Places 3rd At Clemson Invitational

Photo Credit: UA Athletics

SALEM, South Carolina – It was another good showing for the University of Alabama men's golf team.  Four Crimson Tide golfers finished in the top 20 overall to give Bama a third-place finish at the 2017 Clemson Invitational. The Tide carded a 54-hole tourney of 8-over par 878 (298-284-296) over the three-day event.

UA men's golf head coach Jay Seawell was happy with the Crimson Tide's performance, saying, "I think we continued to show improvement. This shows both our coaches and players the importance of a practice round, especially when it's an unfamiliar course. We could've done better in the practice round and we just never could get comfortable on the golf course. It's a tough golf course and the greens were firm and fast. That helped keep us from playing to the ability that we are capable of. I think we played well, but I think we need to be a little better prepared and that's on me as a coach."

Leading Bama was sophomore Davis Riley, tying for ninth overall with a one-over par 217 (71-73-73), racking up his third consecutive top-10 finish. Junior Jonathan Hardee picked up his fourth top-20 finish in five tournaments this spring with a 15th-place finish carding a four-over 220 (74-69-77).
Juniors Lee Hodges (81-69-72) and Steven Setterstrom (75-73-74) tied for 20th with each shooting a 222, while redshirt freshman Josh Sedeno finished with a 234 (78-76-80) to place 49th-overall.

Taking the team title was tournament host and No. 18-ranked Clemson (858). 15 strokes better than second-place No. 21 Georgia Tech (873). SMU (885) took fourth, seven strokes behind Alabama, while the College of Charleston (886) finished fifth.

The Crimson Tide will begin postseason play competing at the 2017 Southeastern Conference Championships to be held at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Georgia.

Concerning the SEC tourney, Seawell said, "I think we've had three tournaments in a row where the team continued to improve and we are gaining confidence. The SECs are the start of the championship season and I think our guys are getting that confidence that you need to be successful there. We basically have 10 days to get ourselves where we need to be, so we'll give them a couple days off and begin that work on Wednesday."

---------------------------------------------------

Alabama Baseball 0-For-3 Against Ole Miss

__________

Falls 8-2 On Sunday

Photo Credit: UA Athletics

OXFORD, Mississippi – This has not been the year for Alabama baseball...and this definitely wasn't the series for Bama.  Alabama fell 8-2 at Ole Miss on Sunday afternoon at Swayze Field, dropping the Crimson Tide to 13-19 overall and 2-10 in Southeastern Conference play.

Though Alabama put runners in scoring position in four of five innings, the Tide just couldn't punch them across the plate. Hunter Alexander finished the contest three-for-four with one RBI, one run scored and a walk on the day. Gene Wood was two-for-four on the day with double and a run scored. Chandler Avant and Cobie Vance both went one-for-five. Sam Finnerty (1-3) was the losing pitcher.

The Crimson Tide faces UAB on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT in this season's second meeting. UA took the first contest 4-1 at Regions Field in Birmingham. This second meeting will be held at The Joe in Tuscaloosa.

-----------------------------------------------------

Top-Ranked Alabama Women's Golf Places 2nd

At Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic

Photo Credit: UA Athletics

ATHENS, Georgia – The top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide women's golf team fell short of its second consecutive Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic title, but captured a second-place finish following the Sunday championship round at the par-72 6,300-yard University of Georgia Golf Club. The eighth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs, the host team, took the win.

It was Bama sophomore Cheyenne Knight taking the Tide's only win on Sunday, defeating Jillian Hollis, 1-up. Senior Mia Landegren played Rinko Mitsunaga to a draw to account for Alabama's points. Freshman Kristen Gillman dropped a 1-up decision to Bailey Tardy after Tardy birdies the final two holes to assure the win. Sophomore Lauren Stephenson fell to Mary Ellen Shuman 3-2, and junior Lakareber Abe dropped a 1-up decision to Harang Lee to close play.

Alabama captured the victor in last year's tournament with a 3-2 win over UCLA, and has won the Liz Murphey four times (1987, 2011, 2012, 2016) since its inception in 1973.

Alabama will now defend its SEC title at the 2017 Southeastern Conference Women's Golf Championships on April 21-23 at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama.

-----------------------------------------------------

Crimson Tide Men's Tennis Upsets Kentucky Wildcats

Photo Credit: UA Athletics

LEXINGTON,  Kentucky – The Alabama men's tennis team picked up a big win on Sunday afternoon, upsetting the 23rd-ranked Kentucky Wildcats in a 4-3 victory at the Boone Tennis Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Bama stepped up for two victories in doubles and three wins in singles play on the day. The Tide improves to a 10-15 overall record, 2-9 in Southeastern Conference play, while the Wildcats fall to 13-9 and 4-5 in league play.

This was the first Crimson Tide victory over the Wildcats since the 2014 season, when Alabama defeated Kentucky 5-2.  Incidentally, this is the first win in Lexington, Kentucky since the 2009 season, when the Tide defeated the Cats in a 4-3 decision.


UA men's tennis head coach George Husack commented, "When you take a few punches as we have this year you can either throw in the towel or put in a fresh mouthpiece and keep fighting and fight we did [Sunday]."

Husack continued, "It's easy to give up and give in while harder to keep going with even more grit and determination. We have more work to do, but for now, we will enjoy this long ride home [Sunday night]."

SINGLES
1. No. 31 Mazen Osama (Alabama) defeated No. 16 Will Bushamuka (Kentucky) 6-1, 6-2
2. No. 117 Thibault Cancel (Alabama) defeated No. 38 Ryotaro Matsumura (Kentucky) 6-0, 6-2
3. Beck Pennington (Kentucky) defeated Alexey Nesterov (Alabama) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
4. Nils Ellenfsen (Kentucky) defeated Spencer Richey (Alabama) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
5. Zhe Zhou (Alabama) defeated Trey Yates (Kentucky) 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
6. Enzo Wallart (Kentucky) defeated Ritchie Kruunenberg (Alabama) 6-3, 6-3

DOUBLES
1. No. 38 Mazen Osama/Spencer Richey (Alabama) defeated No. 32 Beck Pennington//Enzo Wallart (Kentucky) 6-4
2. Thibault Cancel/Alexey Nesterov (Alabama) defeated Nils Ellefsen/Will Bushamuka (Kentucky) 7-6
3. Gus Benson/Trey Yates (Kentucky)  defeated  Zhe Zhou/Ritchie Kruunenberg (Alabama) 6-3