Alabama and Auburn meet in Softball Iron Bowl

After a much needed bye week, Alabama heads to Auburn this weekend to take on the No. 7 Tigers in an Iron Bowl weekend series. Patrick Murphy's team arrives ranked sixth in the country, dropping one spot from number five, a position they had held for several weeks.

Alabama (33-9, 10-5 SEC) comes into the series fresh off a pair of midweek wins against UAB and NC State. Last weekend, Alabama had a break from its loaded SEC schedule with a bye weekend but picks up right where it left off against a top 10 opponent. The key concern for Alabama is freshman pitcher Alexis Osorio's health after she was struck in side by a line drive during the second inning of Tuesday night's game against UAB. She is listed as probable for the series, and Alabama will need her to play well as they prepare for the top batting team in the SEC.

Auburn (40-6, 12-3 SEC) comes into the series after taking two of three games from Texas A&M last weekend. The Auburn bats have been dominant all year as they lead the SEC in almost every category: batting average, slugging percentage, total runs scored, total hits and home runs. Tiffany Howard has been the leader of the club, batting an astounding .514 on the year. She's followed by Emily Carosone, who's batting .477. While the hitting has been great all year for the Tigers, the pitching has been less than impressive. Auburn ranks in the bottom third of the SEC in most stats, including overall ERA, opposing batting average and batters struck out. Rachel Walters is the leader in the clubhouse, carrying a 15-2 record to match a 2.37 ERA.

This weekend could possibly be the biggest Iron Bowl series since Patrick Murphy arrived at Alabama with both teams playing at such a high level. The key to the series will be Alabama's pitching against Auburn's hitting. Though Osorio is officially listed as probable, it's uncertain if she'll play as well as she had been all year with the injury. Alabama will have to depend heavily on Leslie Jury and Sydney Littlejohn to keep the runs down, as the Crimson Tide bats have struggled against tough pitchers at times. Alabama will need the games to be low scoring in order to win, as they may not be able to keep up with Auburn if they start hitting home runs.

Alabama and Auburn play in the first game of a three game series on Friday, at 7:30 PM.