Alabama Softball: Previewing the Tuscaloosa Regional

Alabama Softball will host three teams in Tuscaloosa for the NCAA Regional tournament. Check out a preview of Arizona State, Alabama State and Lipscomb.

If you aren’t already aware of the format for the NCAA tournament, Alabama Softball qualified for its 21st consecutive NCAA tournament as the national 8th seed. That means it hosts a regional this weekend and, should they end up winning the regional, will host the winner of the Austin regional in the Tuscaloosa Super Regional best-of-three series.

For the regional tournament, Alabama, along with three other teams, will compete in a double-elimination style tournament. This means you can win the tournament in as little as three games to as many as five. The regional championship is played on Sunday and, should the 2-0 team lose to the 2-1 team, an if-necessary game will be played shortly after.

Let’s preview the three teams:

Alabama State

The Lady Hornets, despite a barely above .500 record at 24-23, qualified for the tournament after winning the SWAC against Texas Southern.

ASU’s power lies mainly in the batting order. They have six batters who are above .300 in the batting average, led by Alexis Sydnor with a .387. Their overall home run count isn’t exceptionally high, but Sydnor has also recorded 34 runs, making her a key player for the Yellow Jackets to have success.

Their pitching rotation is probably their weakest area. Their two pitchers who start regularly, Justine Jean and Vanessa Bradford, combine for 4.88 ERA. Charlene Castro is their relief pitcher and has a better ERA (2.51) but only gets seen half the time.

Alabama will play the Lady Jackets first on Friday night following Lipscomb/Arizona State.

Arizona State

Arizona State, like Alabama, has a lot of softball history. This will be the Sun Devil’s 30th appearance in the NCAA tournament. They have two WCWS Championships, their most recent being 2011. Arizona State finished fourth in the Pac-12 with a 33-18 record.

Arizona State has two power hitters in both Kindra and Maddi Hackbarth. They both lead the team in home runs this season with a combined 35 on the year. Kindra also leads all batters with .413 average. The Hackbarth twins have also accounted for over 100 RBIs so opponents will need to watch out if Arizona State gets on base.

In the Pitching rotation, Abby Anderson leads the rotation with a 4.14 ERA. Samantha Mejia, however, leads in the number of innings pitched and has a similar ERA (4.38). Mejia also leads in strikeouts with 86.

Alabama should be prepared to play Arizona State hard if they end up playing them in the regional tournament.

Lipscomb

Lipscomb comes into the NCAA with an impressive 41-13 record. They are in the tournament, however, being the Atlantic Sun champions. Lipscomb has never won a Regional but did appear in the Tuscaloosa Regional in 2010, where they met Alabama softball in the final.

Lipscomb primarily wins games by its activity in the circle. The rotation is led by Mandy Jordan, who has a 1.81 ERA in 170.1 innings. Katie Turner and Megan Gray are right behind with less the 3.00 ERA each.

The Bisons won their last 10 regular season games and won 17 of their last 18 contests. They are no pushover.

Alabama softball has the pitching to win the regional. Even so, Arizona State has firepower and could prove to be a tough test.