What's been the story of the Alabama softball season through two weeks?
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 11-0 is a great start against some of the lesser competition.
00:03 The obvious question is, what do you do with Montana Fowls being gone?
00:08 The underlying issue is still the issue, I think you've been there with me,
00:14 the hitting issue.
00:15 Tell us about where we're at.
00:16 Two weeks in, so you're barely into anything.
00:19 Where are we at with the hitting?
00:21 Where are we at with this team?
00:22 What do we think that this team could be?
00:24 Yeah, it really is hard to know at this point, just because the quality of
00:29 the opponent hasn't been great.
00:30 And I think that's why it's kind of concerning that the hitting hasn't been
00:33 great so far, which on Wednesday against North Alabama, they did run rule them,
00:37 they did score nine runs.
00:38 We did see two home runs, which was a positive sign,
00:41 especially after how things had gone in the weekend,
00:43 which like I said earlier, I wasn't at the games on Saturday and Sunday.
00:46 But Sunday they were facing a Southern Illinois team that the first day
00:53 of the Bama Bash had lost to St. Thomas,
00:55 had gotten shut out by St. Thomas 5-0,
00:57 who came into the Bama Bash at 0-5 and was a D3 team a couple years ago.
01:01 So I'm thinking, oh, Sunday, last day of the tournament,
01:03 Alabama will run rule them 13-0.
01:07 They went 2-0 and only get two hits in the game.
01:11 And obviously that's not what you want to see.
01:13 And so it has been inconsistent from the offense so far.
01:18 You know, part of it could be when you're facing teams that are of a lower
01:22 quality, I think a lot of times girls get those big eyes to play because they
01:25 see the slower pitch coming in than what you're going to face in SEC play and
01:29 think, oh, I'm going to crush this out of the park.
01:31 And then they get under it and they pop it up.
01:33 Or you saw a lot of fly balls instead of, you know,
01:36 hitting it hard on the ground the last couple of games.
01:39 And so it is hard to know so far.
01:41 I think in the circle, though, you talked about replacing Montana Fouts.
01:44 I think there's been a lot of encouraging signs.
01:46 There was kind of two free entries over the weekend,
01:49 which I wasn't there for either of them.
01:50 But both Lauren Essman and Jocelyn Briskey just kind of like left the field,
01:55 like in the middle of games.
01:56 And Murph said earlier this week that they're day to day.
01:59 But I think you've seen good stuff out of Kayla Beaver,
02:04 the transfer from Central Arkansas and from Jalen Torrance so far this year.
02:07 And I think those are going to kind of be the two they rely on.
02:11 Or really Jocelyn Briskey, the freshman, may end up being the number two behind
02:15 Beaver.
02:16 But I think that the key is that you have options.
02:18 You have six pitchers and like that depth has already been tested in it
02:21 because Alex Salter still hasn't pitched at all this year.
02:25 I'm not really sure how much she will pitch this year or
02:28 really how much they're going to need her.
02:29 But you have that option.
02:31 You have the depth of the six pitchers that if someone's off that weekend or
02:35 you have the opportunity to start three different people over in an SEC series
02:39 weekend where in the past, which it was a great option to have Montana would start,
02:42 you know, Friday, Sunday or Friday, Saturday, she would start two games
02:45 at least in a series.
02:46 But now you have the option to kind of spread the wealth a little bit,
02:50 which has been a positive sign in the circle.
02:51 So far, no matter who you're playing,
02:53 the kind of shutouts they've had so far has been encouraging.
02:57 Don't let her know.
02:59 (upbeat music)