Alabama Softball Continues Hot Streak Going Into the Easton Crimson Classic

The Alabama Crimson Tide returns to Tuscaloosa with a 15-game winning streak as they’ll play five games during the Easton Crimson Classic against Louisiana-Monroe, North Dakota State and DePaul.

Alabama defeated Jacksonville State 10-3 Wednesday night in Jacksonville State’s home opener. The Crimson Tide led wire-to-wire as every starter got at least one hit. Leona Lafaele and Sydney Booker each recorded two RBIs while Andrea Hawkins finished 4-4 against the Gamecocks.

Jacksonville State played well but the Crimson Tide posted four-run innings twice with both instances coming after the Gamecocks scored a run in the previous half-inning.

The Easton Crimson Classic marks the final non-conference home weekend of the regular season. This week’s field on paper does not appear as strong as last week’s Easton Bama Bash. The strongest team in the field is North Dakota State. They have dominated the Summit League in recent seasons winning the Summit League Tournament in six of the past seven seasons. The Bison came to national prominence when they  made an NCAA super regional appearance in 2009.

North Dakota State is built around speed. They have 25 steals as a team led by Katie Shoultz and Logan Moreland with 10 and 8 stolen bases respectively.

Alabama opens the weekend with Louisiana-Monroe. The Warhawks are off to a solid 11-5 but lost their most recent game to LSU 8-0 in five innings.

The Warhawks rank second in the Sun Belt Conference scoring 121 runs as a team through 16 games. Three players for ULM have almost half of the team’s RBI total. Senior Faith Bohack paces ULM with 18 RBIs followed by senior Amye Barre and junior McKinley Marks with 16 RBIs each.

Alabama’s third opponent, DePaul, is just 2-8 coming into the weekend. The Blue Demons will play their first game in almost two weeks. In their most recent two games, DePaul lost a pair of five-inning games 16-4 to Tennessee and 18-0 to Auburn.

Alabama begins the weekend Friday with games against ULM at 4 PM followed by North Dakota State at 6:30 PM. The Crimson Tide plays two more games Saturday with first pitch against DePaul at 1:30 PM and North Dakota State at 4 PM. ULM will face Alabama to conclude the Easton Crimson Classic Sunday at 1:30 PM.

College Softball Notes Around Alabama:

-Samford defeated UAB for the first time since 2009 with a 6-1 victory Wednesday

-In the Samford win, senior Mollie Hanson tied the school record for career wins with her 54^th career win.

-Samford faces Jacksonville State in a three-game weekend series with Jacksonville State hosting a twin bill Saturday and Samford hosting a single game Sunday.

-UAB faces their 5^th SEC team of the season as they’ll play Tennessee during the Tennessee Invitational.

-Troy and South Alabama play their final non-conference weekend tournaments this week before opening Sun Belt play next week.