Softball: Tide To Host Easton Bama Bash This Weekend

The University of Alabama softball team will play their first games of the season at home as they host the Easton Bama Bash in Tuscaloosa. The Tide will play five games over three days. On Friday, Feb. 21, Alabama plays Virginia Tech (4 p.m.) and UCF (6 p.m.). On Saturdy, the Tide will play Virginia Tech (1:30 p.m.) and UCF (4 p.m.) again before concluding tournament action on Sunday, Feb. 23 against McNeese State (1:30 p.m.).

Virginia Tech (5-2 record)-The Hokies began the 2014 season with 2 victories over Miami University and Tennessee State and a loss to Lipscomb at the Music City Classic. The next weekend at the Buffalo Wild Wings Spartan Invitational, the team won three versus Ball State and the North Carolina-Greensboro and suffered a loss to USC Upstate. Their hitting is led by Vanessa Gonzalez with a .444 batting average with 1 home run and 3 RBIs. Amanda Ake has brought in 9 runs across the plate with her .364 average. Maggie Tyler has a 1.67 ERA in the circle with a win loss record of 2-0. She’s fanned 21 batters and given up no home runs on the season.

Central Florida (7-1 record)-The Knights of Central Florida are off to a great start for the season, winning all seven games thus far. Central Florida opened the season with 3 wins over LIU Brooklyn, Fordham, and Kansas. At the UCF Holiday Inn Classic, they added 4 more with victories over UIC, Middle Tennessee State, James Madison and Florida A&M. UCF lost to ACC member Florida State on Wednesday night. Linnea Goodman leads the hitting for the Knights with an average of .412 with 3 RBIs. No Central Florida players have any home runs yet. The team batting average is currently at .224. Shelby Turnier has been the best overall pitcher for the Knights with a 3-0 record and an 1.03 ERA with 30 strikouts. Mackenzie Audas has been pretty good as well with an ERA of 1.71 with 28 strikeouts and a 4-1 loss record.

McNeese State (5-5 record)-The McNeese State Cowboys got the season started off at the South Alabama Mardi Gras Tournament to open the season with a 3-2 record. The Cowboys picked up wins against UAB, Syracuse and split two with Austin Peay. They dropped one more that same weekend to South Alabama. McNeese headed to College Station, TX the following weekend and lost 3 games and ended up winning 2. They split two with Texas A&M, lost 2 to Tulsa and won against Oregon State. Lauren Lagner tops the hitters for the Cowboys with an average of .371 with 5 RBIs. Jamie Allred leads the pitchers with a 2.72 ERA with 40 strikeouts and a 4-2 win-loss record.

Alabama Crimson Tide (8-2)-The Alabama ladies got off to an unbelievable start for the 2014 season winning all 5 games opening weekend at the Troy Subway Invitational in Troy AL. The Tide had victories over Kennesaw State, North Florida, North Florida, Troy and Middle Tennessee State outscoring those opponents 48-3. This past weekend at the Hillenbrand Invitational in Tuscon, AZ, the ladies won the first three match ups against Grand Canyon, Tennessee State and New Mexico but dropped the last two to #24 Arizona. Arizona held Alabama scoreless through 2 games at the Invitational. Haylie McCleney is leading the Tide hitters with .625 batting average and a 1.208 slugging percentage. McCleney also has .728 on base percentage with 3 home runs and 12 RBIs. Five other Bama players are at or above a .400 batting average. Danae Hays leads the team in slugging percentage with a 1.211, home runs with 5. and also with RBIs at 14. Sydney Littlejohn (3-0) leads the pitching staff with an ERA of 1.09 with 22 strikeouts on just over 19 frames pitched. Jaclyn Traina (2-1) is just barely behind Littlejohn sporting an ERA of 1.24. Traina also has 22 strikeouts and has given up 3 home runs. Thirteen Bama players are checking in with a 1.000 fielding percentage.

Bama in the Polls

Bama softball remained in the top 10 of both polls this week after suffering 2 losses to Arizona but dropped a few spots. In the USA Today/NFCA Poll, the ladies dropped 5 spots to number 9 and in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll dropped one spot to number 7. You can see the complete polls here.

Next Games for the Tide After The Easton Bama Bash

Photo Credit: RollTide.com