| BSB/SB Bama drops series to ULL- 2-1

[UA Press Release]

No. 5/4 ALABAMA (6-0) at No. 18/18 LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE (4-2)
LAFAYETTE, LA.
LAMSON PARK

• Friday, Feb. 17 - 5 p.m. CT
• Saturday, Feb. 18 - 1 p.m. CT
• Sunday, Feb. 19 – 1 p.m. CT

FOLLOWING THE TIDE
Video: Ragin' Cajun All-Access (Online Only)
Radio: 93.3 FM (praise933.com)
Live Stats: rolltide.com
Twitter: @AlabamaSB

SCOUTING ALABAMA (6-0)

• Alabama went 5-0 on the opening weekend of the 2017 season, sweeping its opponents at the Kickin' Chicken Classic in Conway, S.C., before defeating South Alabama 3-1 on Wednesday in Tuscaloosa.
• The Crimson Tide has outscored its opponents 46-6, including a 17-0 win over Towson that was the highest run total in a season-opening game in program history.
• Junior pitcher Alexis Osorio threw the fourth perfect game in program history on Friday against Coastal Carolina with a school-record 19 strikeouts. She started the season pitching 14.2 innings before allowing a baserunner.
• Alabama took home a pair of weekly conference honors, as junior pitcher Alexis Osorio was named the Pitcher of the Week and Bailey Hemphill was named the Freshman of the Week.
• The Tide moved into the top five in both national polls this week, climbing to No. 5 in the USA Today/NFCA poll and No. 4 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.

THE OPPONENT

Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns

• Conference: Sun Belt
• 2016 Record: 4-2
• Head Coach: Michael Lotief (15th Season)
• Starters Returning/Lost: 5/4
• Newcomers: 8

Returning Stat Leaders from 2016:

• Batting Avg. - Aleah Craighton - .378
• Hits - Haley Hayden - 70
• Home Runs - Craighton / Sanders - 18
• Wins - Alex Stewart - 29
• ERA - Alex Stewart - 1.94
• Strikeouts - Alex Stewart - 196

ALABAMA ALL-TIME VS. THE OPPONENT

5-4 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette

• Current Streak: Alabama 1
• First Meeting: Feb. 27, 1997 - L, 0-3 - Lafayette, La.
• Last Meeting: March 1, 2015 - W, 3-2 - Tuscaloosa, Ala.

ALABAMA VS. RANKED OPPONENTS

• This weekend marks the first ranked matchup for the Crimson Tide this season. All-time, Alabama is 241-199 (.548) against top-25 opponents.
• Alabama has played at least 25 games against top-25 opponents four of the last five years.
• Within its first 10 games of the season, Alabama has matched up against at least one ranked foe every year but once since 2012. No. 18 Louisiana-Lafayette this weekend is the highest-ranked early opponent the Tide has faced since playing 15th-ranked Oklahoma State in the seventh game of the 2012 season, which Alabama won 3-1.

CAJUN CONNECTION

This weekend's series in Lafayette, La., is a homecoming for multiple members of the Crimson Tide family.

• Head Coach Patrick Murphy got his first collegiate softball job at Louisiana-Lafayette, formerly Southwestern Louisiana, as an assistant under hall-of-fame head coach Yvette Girouard while earning his master's degree in communication. Murphy spent five seasons (1990-94) with the Ragin' Cajuns, appearing in the 1993 Women's College World Series and compiling an overall record of 239-46 over that time.
• Associate Head Coach Alyson Habetz, a native of nearby Crowley, La., arrived at Southwestern Louisiana on a basketball scholarship but she channeled her love for the sport of baseball through a chance encounter with the Ragin' Cajun softball team. Her transition to the softball diamond proved succesful, as she earned All-America and Academic All-America honors and appeared in the 1993 Women's College World Series.
• Freshman Bailey Hemphill hails from Lafayette, La., where she attended St. Thomas More Catholic. There, she was a two-time First Team High School All-American and was named Louisiana's 'Miss Softball' her senior year. She set the school's home run record in just two seasons and led the team to state titles in 2013 and 2014.

LAST TIME OUT: ALABAMA DEFEATS SOUTH ALABAMA, 3-1
Alabama softball was out-hit in its home opener Wednesday against South Alabama but still managed to edge out a close 3-1 win in the low-scoring pitcher's duel.

Alabama trailed South Alabama in the hit column, 5-4, but two early runs and some late insurance proved enough to claim the two-run victory. The top three batters in Alabama's order accounted for three of the team's four hits while a fifth-inning solo home run by Marisa Runyon went down as an emphatic final hit of the night for the Tide.

Alexis Osorio was again perfect through 3.0 innings before the Jaguars led off the top of the fourth with a base hit, her first baserunner allowed so far this season. The junior from Riverside, Calif., ended the night with one run allowed on five hits and 15 strikeouts while USA starter Devin Brown took her first loss of the season with three runs on four hits and four strikeouts.



ALABAMA SOFTBALL CLIMBS TO TOP-FIVE NATIONAL RANKING

• Alabama softball moved into the top five in both national polls this week, coming in at No. 5 in the USA Today/NFCA poll and No. 4 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, released Tuesday.
• Alabama jumped ahead two spots in the NFCA poll and three spots in the USA Softball poll for its first top-five appearance of the season. Preseason No. 1 Oklahoma fell to No. 4/6 after a pair of losses on opening weekend as Florida claimed this week's top spot in both polls. Auburn and Florida State are at No. 2 and 3, respectively, in both lists while UCLA sneaks in at No. 5 in the USA Softball poll.
• Alabama is one of nine SEC schools ranked in this week's top 25, the most of any conference. Ranked SEC teams include Florida (1/1), Auburn (2/2), Alabama (5/4), LSU (7/8), Georgia (12/12), Tennessee (15/14), Missouri (17/13), Texas A&M (19/17) and Kentucky (22/23). South Carolina and Ole Miss are both receiving votes outside the top 25.

OSORIO AND HEMPHILL EARN WEEKLY SEC HONORS

After a successful opening weekend, Alabama softball earned a pair of weekly honors from the Southeastern Conference, announced Monday. Junior pitcher Alexis Osorio is the SEC Pitcher of the Week and freshman catcher Bailey Hemphill is the SEC Freshman of the Week.

• The weekly award is the second of Osorio's career, previously winning on Feb. 29, 2016, and the first for Hemphill who made her Crimson Tide debut last weekend. Hemphill joins Charlotte Morgan (2007) and Haylie McCleney (2013) as the only players in program history to win Freshman of the Week in the first week of the season. Overall, Alabama has won SEC Pitcher of the Week 35 times and Freshman of the Week 18 times, the latter award only being introduced in 2007.
• Osorio was perfect over 11.2 innings pitched this weekend, striking out 25 batters while not allowing a single baserunner. She threw the fourth perfect game in program history in her season debut on Friday against Coastal Carolina, striking out a school-record 19 batters in the game. She earned the win in relief the next day against Towson, throwing 4.2 more perfect innings with six strikeouts. Ultimately, 25 of the 35 outs recorded by Osorio came via strikeout.
• Hemphill made quite an impression in her first weekend with the Tide, hitting .500 (7-14) over five starts with nine RBIs a team-leading three home runs, posting a 1.214 slugging percentage. She hit a home run in her first career at-bat, a three-run shot against Towson on Friday, and added another three-run homer the very next game against Coastal Carolina. She capped the weekend with another long ball on Sunday against the Chanticleers, part of a 3-3 day at the plate. She earned at least one hit in all five games played this weekend and scored at least one run in four of the five.

 

[RTB Twitter Bot]

 

[TerryP]

 

[RTB Twitter Bot]

 

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[RTB Twitter Bot]

 

[EasyTider]

Osorio and company got azzes spanked today 7-0. Not a good road trip.

 

[UA Press Release]

Fourth-Ranked Alabama Softball Falls in Series Finale at No. 18 Louisiana-Lafayette, 7-0


LAFAYETTE, La. – No. 4 Alabama could not find a rhythm offensively in the weekend finale against No. 18 Louisiana-Lafayette, falling 7-0 to the Ragin' Cajuns Sunday afternoon at Lamson Park.

Alabama (7-2) was shut out for the first time this season, as Louisiana-Lafayette (6-3) took a quick lead in the first inning and never looked back. The Crimson Tide tallied just two hits in the loss, coming off the bats of Chandler Dare and Merris Schroder, while they left a total of seven runners on base. After allowing just 18 walks through the first eight games of the season, Alabama's pitchers allowed nine free passes today along with five hits, including two home runs, as Alexis Osorio (4-1) ultimately took the loss in the circle, her first of the young season. The Ragin' Cajuns' freshman starter Alyssa Denham (2-1) pitched the complete-game shutout in the circle.

The Ragin' Cajuns broke into the run column first with DJ Sanders blasting a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning. Three walks to start the bottom of the fourth loaded the bases for ULL with nobody out and pinch-hitter Corin Voinche brought one home on a high fly ball to center field for a sacrifice fly. With the bases again loaded later in the inning with two out, a ball caromed off Osorio in the circle to Demi Turner who flipped it to Claire Jenkins covering second for the 1-4-6 putout to end the inning and get the Tide out of the jam trailing 3-0.

Sanders hit her second home run of the day in the bottom of the fifth, a solo shot that made it 4-0 and forced a pitching change for Alabama as Sydney Littlejohn entered with one out. After a walk, Lexie Comeaux dropped a single into right center and looked to be caught between first and second but a dropped ball on the play allowed her to get back to first and the runner at third to score on the error, making it 5-0.

With two on and two out in the bottom of the sixth, a fielding error extended the inning and loaded the bases for ULL and Daniella Chavez took advantage of the extended inning in the next at-bat, dropping a two-run single into right field to make it 7-0. Alabama would go down in order in the top of the seventh as Louisiana-Lafayette held on to preserve the shutout.

Next up, Alabama begins a six-game home stand on Wednesday, Feb. 22 against North Florida (4-3) at 6 p.m. CT at Rhoads Stadium.

 

[252BAMA]

LaLA beat another #4 team last night. aTm (37-4). These girls are kicking a$$ and taking names. Bama had better hope they don't wind up in the same regional with them. They are 33-6 on the year and should be ranked much higher.

 

[bama alum]

LaLA beat another #4 team last night. aTm (37-4). These girls are kicking a$$ and taking names. Bama had better hope they don't wind up in the same regional with them. They are 33-6 on the year and should be ranked much higher.

They were doing that last year going into Oklahoma City.

 

[TerryP]

@252BAMA I'm not surprised they are doing as well as they are. They were in the Supers last season and the year before. I want to say they made it to the WCWS in '14, but that may have been '13.

Strong program.

They were doing that last year going into Oklahoma City.

Got swept by OU in the Supers as I recall.