Box Score

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama Softball secured its 14th-straigth appearance in an NCAA Regional title game, defeating Cal 3-1 Saturday afternoon at Rhoads Stadium.

Sunday's NCAA Regional title appearance will be the 14th-striaght for Alabama (48-12), as the Crimson Tide have appeared in the regional championship every year since 2003, winning all but one of those title games. Today's win also marked the 30th-straight game Alabama has won in the regional round.

The Tide fell behind in the first inning as Cal (32-23-1) scored a run in the first, but a pair of runs in the third and some insurance in the fifth ultimately proved enough in the low-scoring affair. The Bears out-hit the Crimson Tide, 10-6, but left 10 runners stranded and twice left the bases loaded. Chandler Dare drove in two of the team's three runs with a third-inning triple and a fifth-inning double with Haylie McCleney scoring on both hits. Sydney Littlejohn (23-6) threw 4.0 innings for the win while Alexis Osorio fanned seven batters over 3.0 relief innings for her seventh save of the season.

Cal threatened early, loading the bases with one away in the top of the first and a single by Kobie Pettis scored one, though the trailing runner was tagged out at home trying to score, putting two outs on the board with Alabama trailing 1-0. An error on the next play would load the bases again for the Bears but a strikeout would get the Tide out of the jam and limit the damage to one run.

Peyton Grantham led off the bottom of the second with a single and Rachel Bobo , pinch running, was sacrificed into scoring position in the next at-bat. Turning back to the top of the order, McCleney bounced an RBI triple off the wall in left-center to tie the game at 1-1 and Dare followed with another triple to give Alabama a 2-1 lead.

After a leadoff single in the top of the fifth, Alabama turned to its bullpen as Friday winner Osorio entered in relief. A bunt single and some heads-up baserunning by Cal in the next at-bat put two runners in scoring position with nobody out before a walk loaded the bases. A popup and a pair of strikeouts got Alabama out of the jam and held Cal scoreless to preserve the Tide's 2-1 lead.

McCleney and Dare paired up for another run in the bottom of the fifth, with McCleney drawing a two-out walk and Dare driving her in on an RBI double that fell just past the glove of the diving Cal left fielder to make it 3-1.

The score remained the same heading to the top of the seventh and Cal led off the inning with back-to-back singles on the first two pitches they saw. Osorio bounced back to strike out the next three batters and push Alabama to a 3-1 win.

Alabama will take on the winner of Saturday night's elimination game in the NCAA Regional title game on Sunday, May 21 at 1:30 p.m. CT.