Five-seed Alabama softball was eliminated by nine-seed Stanford on Friday night, losing a pitcher’s duel 2-0. The Tide went winless at the Women’s College World Series while getting one hit by Cardinal pitching.

Alabama legend Montana Fouts ended her collegiate career at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium. She returned after a hyperextended leg suffered three weeks ago. Fouts managed her longest outing of the tournament, fighting through six innings while often adjusting her knee brace.

Overall, it wouldn’t be fair to say “Team 27,” as they were affectionately called, underachieved in 2023. The Tide won 45 games battling through an inconsistent regular season. It made a run in the SEC tournament and rallied around one another once their most important player got injured. But the clutch moments Alabama created across the previous two weeks at Rhoads Stadium faded in Oklahoma City.

The offense failed to put up more than five runs in all but one of its nine NCAA tournament games. The pitching, meanwhile, buckled after a strong postseason. And for the second year in a row, Stanford ended Alabama’s campaign for a national title.

The Cardinal worked its leadoff hitter on in the opening two innings, both times getting the batter to second with less than two outs. While they didn’t convert in the opening frame, the light-hitting Sydney Steele (.178 batting average) continued her strong postseason with an RBI double just past a diving Larissa Preuitt to open the scoring.

Opposing Fouts in the circle was senior Alana Vawter. The senior shut out Alabama twice a year ago, becoming the first pitcher to do so since 2004. She looked similarly comfortable in a win-or-go-home situation. She yielded just two base runners, the first coming via a throwing error. The Tide’s first hit came in the third inning.

But while both runners reached second base, the Tide’s issues with runners in scoring position reemerged. With Ashley Prange on second, Jenna Johnson lined a single up the middle off Sawter, but the tip redirected the ball to the second baseman for an inning-ending ground out.

Fouts found a groove in the middle innings, retiring 13 of the next 14 batters following Steele’s RBI double. The only issue for Tide was Vawter. While Fouts settled in, Vawter kept churning through the lineup by mixing speeds. After Prange’s single in the third inning, the Tide wouldn’t get another base runner the rest of her outing.

Alabama had a welcome relief in the sixth inning when Vawter exited after the first out. But that was only slight as Timmy Trumpet rang throughout the stadium, signaling the entry of the country’s ERA leader NiJaree Canady (0.48). She struck out Prange then Johnson was robbed of her second hit by a shoestring catch in right field.

Steele added an insurance run in the top of the seventh.