Alabama Crimson Tide Softball Faces Crucial Home Series with Georgia

Alabama is on the brink of not being ranked in the Top 25 anywhere. Of the four polls, only USA Softball – which is partnered with ESPN – has them at #25. Even that seems suspicious with a Bama game being aired on an ESPN network this weekend.

After going 1-2 in College Station, Alabama is back in Tuscaloosa and, dare I say, they need to win them all. If the midweek game was any indication, that might be a tough task.

MIDWEEK

ALABAMA 4, NORTH ALABAMA 2 – The Tide escaped disaster thanks to the charitable Lions.

WEEKEND SCHEDULE*

Home again, home again, lickety-split.

• Friday, Mar 28 vs Georgia 6pm/7pm
• Saturday, Mar 29 vs Georgia 2pm/3pm – “Wear Teal”, fight against ovarian cancer.
• Sunday, Mar 30 vs Georgia 11am/noon – ESPN2

* There could be time changes due to weather. Check back on this post for updates.

HOW TO WATCH… ALLEGEDLY

The first two games will be streamed on someone’s Nextel phone and routed to SEC+. The finale is on the Deuce with a good duo of Roy Philpott and Amanda Scarborough on the call.

GEORGIA (24-8, 3-6)

Those first two numbers of 24 victories versus 8 defeats looks pretty nice. But it’s that second set of numbers of a conference record that jumps out at you.

The Bulldogs had a pretty cush pre-SEC season. They started with a 5-game sweep at some tournament in Orlando against five also-ran teams. From then until the beginning of conference play, they played out their schedule in the friendly confines of Athens, GA against nobodies with the exception of one game at Clemson, an hour and a half up the road, that they lost. That defeat snapped the Dawgs’ 14-cupcake win streak to start the season. UGA would split two games with Ohio State at home before Tennessee came into town two weekends ago.

The Bulldogs managed to win one game (a 9 innings affair) against the Vols in the three game set. UGA then traveled to South Carolina and lost two of three to the surprisingly good Gamecocks. This past weekend, LSU took two of three in Athens. Before playing three games in a tournament in Atlanta, Oklahoma State dropped by UGA on Wednesday and lost 8-4. In short, they can beat good teams, but not consistently.

TUSCALOOSA WEATHER

Temperatures should be okay but there is a threat of wet stuff falling from the sky at any moment over the weekend.

UGA D

There are a lot of similarities in the UGA softball team and football team. Appropriately, Georgia’s defense is well above average with a .977 fielding percentage (7th best nationally among Power teams) and third in the SEC in double plays turned with 17.

UGA PITCHING

The Dwags have three main pitchers and they are all under 3.00 in ERA. Much like their quarterbacks of the gridiron, this trio is not great but just good enough, like game managers. Collectively, they have 16 complete games (Bama has 3), but they are not big strikeout artists, frequently relying on their defense to record outs.

UGA O

The offense is good… if they are playing cupcakes every week. Among SEC teams, the Dawgs are 13th in both team batting average with .292 and runs scored per game of 5.8. Only Mizzou and Auburn have lower numbers. The Lady Doggies are dead last in the league in multi-base hits (doubles+triples+homers) with 73. Alabama has 90. Six SEC teams have more than 100.

UGA batters strike out a good deal (third most in the conference at 138). So how are they winning? Defense and a weak schedule.

TEN CENT ANALYSIS (I take Zelle and PayPal)

Georgia has a lot of right purty squiggly figures on the wins and losses columns. But this is a beatable team. Murphy and his staff have a crucial job of keeping his girls in the right headspace. The “Wear Teal” game will be emotional and Murphy has a bad habit of getting his team all teary and then they play flat. Build them with confidence. Piss them off if you have to. They need to win this series.

Another important task is figuring out a good pitching rotation. I am not in that dugout so I cannot say for sure, but it feels like this pitching staff has fragile psychological issues. I’m not saying they are insane or anything. They just need some good mental exercises or something to help them concentrate and shake off letdowns. So much of sports is psychology. A big part of that is not letting failure get you down. Additionally, Murphy and pitching coach Adam Harbour need to do a better job of preparation. Too often, we have seen a pitcher enter a game and get scorched for the first batter or two (or three), and then all of a sudden look like Montana Fouts.

#RollTide #Team29