As it turns out, the only thing that can slow down Alabama softball so far in 2026 is the weather.
Sunday's Easton Bama Bash finale games were cancelled due to rain. The cancellation may as well have been out of mercy for the other participants.
Alabama's home-opening series couldn't have gone much better: Patrick Murphy's team went 4-0, outscoring its opponents 32-3. That included run-rule victories in five innings in three of the four games. Alabama outscored Purdue 18-0 in two games and outscored Liberty 14-3 in the other two.
The Crimson Tide is now 9-0 on the season and has outscored its opponents 83-9. Contrast that to last season when Alabama was off to just a 6-3 start in nine games, and it's hard not to be encouraged.
Alabama softball goes 4-0 at the Easton Bama Bash
It wasn't the longball this weekend like the opening series in Atlanta, but Alabama's offense still got the job done.
In the first game of the weekend on Friday, Alabama dominated Purdue 10-0. A Brooke Wells bases-clearing double in the third inning broke the game open, and the Crimson Tide cruised from there. Freshman Vic Moten pitched four shutout innings to continue her terrific start to her Alabama career.
Game two on Friday was the only competitive game of the weekend as Alabama clawed out a 6-3 win over Liberty and had to come from behind. The Flames took a 3-2 lead into the fourth inning, but a four-run fourth swung the game in the Tide's favor. After a Liberty error tied the game, RBI hits by Abby Duchscherer, Jena Young, and Lauren Johnson gave Alabama the lead. After a rough start from Jocelyn Briski, Alabama got 5.1 shutout innings of work out of the bullpen from Kaitlyn Pallozi.
Saturday brought two dominant run-rule wins where Alabama didn't allow a single run. An 8-0 win over Liberty opened the day with the freshman Moten throwing five shutout innings with only one hit allowed. Audrey Vandagriff ended the game in the 5th inning with a grand slam.
Briski bounced back on Saturday against Purdue, throwing three no-hit innings with seven strikeouts. On Alexis Pupillo's Senior Day, she drove in three runs with an RBI single and a two-run homer as Alabama rolled to another 8-0 win.
Alabama will head to Tallahassee next weekend for what will be its first serious test of the 2026 season. Along with matchups against Elon (x2) and Dartmouth, the Crimson Tide will play host Florida State twice. The Seminoles are 8-1 with a win over No. 7 UCLA on the resume already, and their only loss came by one to No. 1 Texas Tech.