SEC Softball Tournament Live Updates: No. 5 Alabama vs. No 13 Missouri (2024)

Last season, for the first time in Patrick Murphy's career at Alabama, the Crimson Tide was eliminated in its first game of the SEC Tournament. The opponent? The Missouri Tigers.

Alabama will try to avenge that loss and shake off a frustrating final inning of the regular season as 5-seed Alabama takes on 13-seed Missouri Wednesday evening in Arkansas at the 2023 SEC Softball Tournament.

The two teams met for a three-game series the regular season. Alabama took the first two games of the series at Missouri behind complete-game shutouts from Montana Fouts. However, in the series finale, the Tigers became the only team to run rule Alabama this season with an 11-3 victory.

Missouri beat Mississippi State 3-1 Tuesday night in the play-in game of the tournament to advance to play Alabama.

Because of some of its quality wins and overall strength of schedule, Alabama has pretty much already locked up a seed to host regionals for the NCAA Tournament, but has an outside possibility of being a top-eight seed if it could make a run through the SEC Tournament.

But it all starts with the first game against Missouri Wednesday night.

Starting lineups:

Follow along for scoring updates and analysis on the live blog throughout the game.

Scouting Alabama

Game notes courtesy of Alabama Athletics

• Alabama begins postseason play as the 2023 SEC Softball Tournament in Fayetteville, Ark., on Wednesday, May 10 at 4 p.m. CT live on the SEC Network
• The Crimson Tide earned the No. 5 seed and will open play against the winner of Tuesday's game between No. 13 seed Missouri and No. 12 seed Mississippi State
• The winner of Wednesday's game will advance to play No. 4 seed and tournament host Arkansas on Thursday, May 11 at 4 p.m. CT on SEC Network
• Last weekend, Alabama closed the regular season with a series win at Ole Miss, winning the first two games before falling in Sunday's finale
• Montana Fouts threw a perfect game in the series opener, her second this season and the fourth of her career
• Behind an 8-for-11 (.727) weekend at the plate with three doubles and three RBIs, Larissa Preuitt was named the SEC Freshman of the Week
• Kenleigh Cahalan leads the team with 51 hits, with Ally Shipman close behind with 49 as the pair also owns a combined 30 doubles
• Ashley Prange (46) and Bailey Dowling (45) are also in the 40+ hit club on the team, with the pair tied for the team lead in RBIs (40) and owning the top two home run totals (13,8)
• The Alabama pitching staff has a 1.93 ERA with 372.2 innings pitched, led by Montana Fouts at 22-9 with a 1.44 ERA and NCAA-leading 292 strikeouts in 199.2 innings pitched
• Murphy is in his 25th season as head coach at Alabama with a 1,231-350 (.779) record
• Alabama returns 11 players from last year's team, including All-SEC honorees Montana Fouts, Ashley Prange, Ally Shipman and Bailey Dowling, while also welcoming five freshmen and three transfers

Alabama at the SEC Tournament

• Alabama has played in every SEC Tournament since the program's inception in 1997, with this season marking its 26th appearance (no tournament was held in 2020)
• The Tide owns a 44-27 (.620) all-time record at the SEC Tournament, including a 40-24 (.625) mark under head coach Patrick Murphy
• Alabama has won six SEC Tournament titles, previously doing so in 1998, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2012 and 2021
• Tide players have taken home 42 SEC All-Tournament accolades, including Tournament MVP honors for Stephanie VanBrakle (2005), Kelsi Dunne (2010), Jackie Traina (2012) and Montana Fouts (2021)

History vs. the Opponents at the SEC Tournament

• vs. Arkansas: 5-1 (last meeting: May 10, 2017 - W, 4-1)
• vs. Auburn: 6-3 (last meeting: May 9, 2018 - W, 6-4)
• vs. Florida: 3-6 (last meeting: May 15, 2021 - W, 4-0)
• vs. Georgia: 5-2 (last meeting: May 9, 2019 - W, 2-1 (8))
• vs. Kentucky: 2-0 (last meeting: May 13, 2021 - W, 5-1)
• vs. LSU: 6-6 (last meeting: May 15, 2010 - W, 5-4)
• vs. Ole Miss: 1-1 (last meeting: May 13, 2017 - L, 1-4)
• vs. Mississippi State: 7-1 (last meeting: May 11, 2016 - W, 2-1)
• vs. Missouri: 0-1 (last meeting: May 12, 2022 - L, 0-3)
• vs. South Carolina: 0-3 (last meeting: May 10, 2002 - L, 6-4)
• vs. Tennessee: 4-3 (last meeting: May 14, 2021 - W, 6-5)
• vs. Texas A&M: 2-0 (last meeting: May 11, 2017 - W, 2-1 (10))

Last Time Out: at Ole Miss

• Alabama took two of three games last weekend at Ole Miss to close out the regular season, winning its 17th three-game series in program history against the Rebels
• Friday's 9-0 win in six innings was the Crimson Tide's first run-rule victory in conference play this season, last doing so against Georgia on April 4 last season
• Coincidentally, last year's April 4 win over the Bulldogs was also a perfect game, with Montana Fouts tossing her second of the season and the fourth of her career in Friday's win over the Rebels
• In game two, Alabama trailed 1-0 heading into the seventh inning before a three-run home run from Jenna Johnson gave the Tide the late lead in the eventual 3-1 series clinching victory
• The comeback win was Alabama's first this season when trailing after six innings
• Four players hit above .400 on the weekend, led by SEC Freshman of the Week Larissa Preuitt with an 8-for-11 (.727) series including three doubles and three RBIs