Patrick Murphy give emphatic advice among sluggish offensive start, shouts out Ally Shipman's wedding

It’s been a slow offensive start for Alabama in Game 2 of a weekend series at Arkansas, but head coach Patrick Murphy wants his squad to keep at it. And he delivered a quick message to one of his batters as the Crimson Tide were slumping.

With Lauren Johnson stepping up to bat, Razorbacks pitcher Robyn Herron was in a grove, having surrendered five batters in a row. Murphy shared on the ESPN broadcast that he told Johnson she was going to get a hit, and that was that.

“She’s doing a great job, No. 1. But we need to put the ball in play a lot more,” Murphy said. “I grabbed Lauren Johnson there for a little bit and I said, ‘Lauren no way in heck are we are going to go down six-straight times. You’re gonna put the ball in play. I don’t care how it’s done, Put it in play.’ And she had a good shot to left field.”

Johnson did come through with a hit in the top of the fourth inning, but the Crimson Tide didn’t break through until an inning later. Kendal Clark hit a leadoff double to start the inning, scoring when Kali Heivilin dropped in a single a few batters later. Then Kinley Pate scored when Johnson came up again and singled, herself.

That ended up ultimately chasing Herron from the game.

Then Jenna Johnson came up to bat for the Crimson Tide, drilling a three-run home run that put Alabama ahead, 5-1.

And as the Alabama offense got rolling, Murphy has a recipe for keeping things going behind Jocelyn Briski, who found a groove in the circle after giving up an early run.

“Basically they’re hitting ground balls, we just need to play really good defense behind her and score a couple runs,” Murphy said prior to the offense getting rolling.

Ultimately, that offensive outburst was enough for Alabama to get the job done against the Razorbacks and even the series at 1-1 after Arkansas won the first game in the series. And it sets up what should be a hard-fought rubber match between the two top-level SEC outfits on Sunday afternoon in Fayetteville.

And the head coach had one final message before he passed off the broadcast headset: He’s ready for the wedding of former player Ally Shipman.

“Can’t wait for that Shipman wedding, this summer. I’m ready,” Murphy said.