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Bama News
The story behind Alabama softball’s record 31-0 start
How Alabama celebrated record start.
The plan all along had been to keep things low key. Alabama softball coach didn’t want to bring up the record too many times because it’s just not healthy.
So, when it was broken last Thursday, the celebration was muted -- somewhat. The 28th straight win to open the season was greeted with cupcakes purchased by parents who made the spring break trip to Hawaii.
“We cupcaked Murph’s face,” catcher Reagan Dykes said. “He didn’t seem too happy about that.”
Confirmed.
“I ran away from them too,” Murphy said. “I got one in the earhole. I smelled the frosting for like 12 hours.”
The streak is now at 31 straight to blow past the 27-0 start Alabama recorded in 2001. It’s currently tied for the 19th longest in NCAA softball history with Arizona’s 47 spanning the 1996 and 1997 seasons still the standard.
The unblemished record will be tested this weekend at Texas A&M where a three-game series starts Friday evening. The Aggies are 17-11 overall, but 1-5 in the SEC after getting swept by Auburn last weekend by a combined score of 27-11.
Alabama will take a No. 3 ranking to College Station despite being the only defeated team left in the nation. Strength of schedule is behind the disparity as the Tide rank 11th in the RPI. That’s behind teams with seven losses including No. 7 Kentucky and No. 8 Arizona -- a team Alabama beat in Tucson.
“We don’t even talk about it,” Murphy said. “I don’t know. We just try to do us.”
The SEC schedule brings a different kind of motivation for this Alabama program. Dykes said Murphy likes to remind the team they were picked to finish eighth in the league’s preseason poll.
“And we took that to heart,” Dykes said.
There’s also a redemption factor for a program that won the 2012 national title but fell short of high expectations in recent years. It missed the Women’s College World Series the last two seasons. The program had not fallen short of Oklahoma City in consecutive seasons since the early 2000s.
The emergence of freshman pitcher Montana Fouts and improved production at the plate has been a factor early this season. The rookie from Kentucky is 11-0 pitching in the games against top competition. She has a 0.74 ERA in 76 innings with 96 strikeouts to 11 walks.
At the plate, Murphy said there aren’t many holes in the lineup this spring. Eight are batting .300 or better led by Kaylee Tow’s .373.
“I think a lot of them were embarrassed by last year,” Murphy said, “and I think they had a chip on their shoulder.”
Murphy said they took a different approach to batting in practice. He wanted the team to see more game-like pitching with graduate assistants and volunteer assistants bringing college experience to the workouts.
“And I think that was one of the things we decided to do this fall is don’t just throw 40-foot hit-me-over fastballs, but really challenge them,” Murphy said. “And now, I think you’re seeing the results of that.”
Alabama’s ability to win in a variety of ways has also stood out to Murphy. He said they’ve won with their A-Game, but also their D-game. Committing four errors in one inning against Missouri would typically end poorly, but Murphy said this team has shown renewed resolve.
By their count, pitchers have turned in 29 quality starts in 31 games.
“This year we have the offense to back up the poor start. The one start, we scored 16 runs and the other one was the Missouri game, 14 runs. They’ve picked either side up. It’s been a really fun team to coach. They’re bought in, senior to freshman.”
After the three-game set at Texas A&M, Alabama plays a midweek game at Georgia Tech (18-11) before a home series with Mississippi State (19-8) next weekend.
