After two tough weekends, Alabama was able to come home for some home cooking, which the team took advantage of by winning all five of its games after a 10-0 run-rule victory over Louisville on Sunday.

The second matchup with the Cardinals was the culmination of a dominant performance by the Crimson Tide. The strong performance started with sophomore pitcher Montana Fouts, who in the top of the first used 13 pitches to retire the side. After allowing a lead off single, Fouts retired the next three batters including a strikeout to Louisville slugger Taylor Roby, who leads the team in home runs with five.

“I thought we had a really good starting pitching, the only thing we still need to work on some team defensive stuff,” coach Patrick Murphy said.

Despite the box score that features a five-hit shutout and seven strikeouts on 95 total pitches, Murphy believes that Fouts is still working back to her form from 2019. Murphy said that her velocity was there and the location was pretty good but still wants his ace to get ahead in the count more often. Of Fouts’ 95 pitches, 59 were strikes while 11 of her 20 first pitches to hitters were called strikes.

“I just think that pitching-wise, [I was] just trying to get ahead of them, and even though I wasn’t doing that as well as I wanted to, just knowing that my defense had my back, I was just trying to get that first pitch and get ahead,” Fouts said.

Although Fouts is still working into form, the offense was in mid-season form as it tallied double-digits in runs for the third time in the five-game stretch. The lineup was balanced throughout the weekend as the team received production from multiple hitters. Junior KB Sides had a single-game career-high five RBIs against Louisville on Saturday, while fellow junior Maddie Morgan got the better of her by one in the second game against Penn State as she tallied six RBIs.

Despite their impressive production, sophomore Skylar Wallace trumped them both as she tallied an RBI in each game including a five-RBI performance against the Cardinals on Sunday. Wallace saved her best for her last at-bat. After fouling two pitches off of her right foot, Wallace called game and sent a towering three-run home run over the right field wall to end the game in five innings.

“The previous at-bat she came in on me a lot and was kind of missing the inside pitch and kind of was trying to work outside and wasn’t really working and walked me, and so I knew she’s gonna come back with that inside,” Wallace said. “Obviously, I fouled it off twice off my foot and I knew she was gonna try to get me to swing and miss on it and I tried just think hit it down the right field line, so kind of keep my hands through it and drive it somewhere hard.”

Alabama will be back in action on Wednesday at the team travels to Birmingham to take on UAB. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.