This season marks the seventeenth straight time the Alabama softball teams have been selected for the NCAA postseason with a trip to Oklahoma City, Ok. on the line if all goes well. The committee awarded the Tide with the sixth seed nationally overall for the whole tournament.
With a win next weekend in the regionals in Tuscaloosa, it would guarantee the super regional to be played in Title Town with the winner of the Oklahoma regional. If the Sooners did take that win, the super regionals would be a rematch of the 2012 Women’s College World Series Finals.
“We never take this for granted and it never gets old,” said Head Coach Patrick Murphy via a release from the school. “To see Alabama up on the TV make all the hard work worth it. I’m really happy with the senior class, now they’ve made the tournament all four years. This has been a really easy team to coach and I’m really excited for the postseason.”
Before they worry with the winner coming out of Oklahoma, they will have three other teams to contend with in Tuscaloosa before moving on. Those games follow a double elimination scenario.
On Friday, the Tide will face Fairfield, which is a team that they haven’t played until now. Fairfield, the tournament champion from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, posted a 24-22 record to secure their first trip to the NCAA Tournament and to play in front of rowdy Rhoads Stadium for that initiation. According to their site, the Stags are led by Lauren Filicia who enters the tournament with a .406 batting average. Filicia also earned the MAAC Tournament MVP. Pitchers Destinee Pallotto and Lauren Falkanger both made the All-Tournament team as well by winning two games in the tournament. The two both have 11 wins this season.
SC Upstate (43-8) will also make the trip to Tuscaloosa. Alabama has met them before during the regionals in Tuscaloosa during 2013 and 2014. The Tide won the most recent game against them. The Atlantic Sun Tournament Champions have improved a lot of their numbers at the plate this season, even breaking some school records. As a team, they collectively broke the single-season record for home runs and Shellie Robinson broke the same record for individuals in addition to RBIs. Robinson also tied the career run total for the conference.
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The final team in Tuscaloosa will be the Washington Huskies. The Huskies went 40-15 overall for the season but finished sixth in the PAC 12 conference with a .500 record. The Tide has taken on Washington five times and lost four of those, so hopefully this time around Coach Patrick Murphy’s squad can even things up and pass them in the series record.
The only one out of those that really give me any second thoughts right now is Washington. If Alabama can play like they did in the Auburn series, advancing to super regionals shouldn’t be a problem. Anything can happen on the field though and that’s why they play the game. You have to remember if Alabama did a drop a game, they aren’t completely eliminated. They will have go through to the finals and win two games there on the same day without a loss if that were to happen.
Tickets for the Tuscaloosa Regional can be ordered by calling 205-348-BAMA or logging on and clicking here.