Photo Credit: rolltide.com
Crimson Tide softball batters were putting the bat to the ball Sunday, hitting four home runs en route to a dominating 11-1 win over Washington. In all, Bama had nine homers over the weekend in the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional, bringing their total tally to 58 this season. Alabama's win takes them to their 11th consecutive Super Regional. In fact, the Crimson Tide is the only team in the country to advance to the Super Regional every year since it's inception in 2005.
No. 6 Alabama was again dominating yesterday, as they have been the past several weeks. Haley McCleney banged out two homers, with senior catcher Chaunsey Bell knocking a three-run home run. Senior designated player Danielle Richard rocketing a two-run shot for Sunday's four homers.
Bama gave up only five hits during the entire Tuscaloosa Regional this weekend.
It was freshman righty Alexis Osorio starting for the Tide today. She pitched seven innings while allowing just two hits and striking out five batters. The one run scored by Washington was an unearned run. She improves her record to 19-7, with yesterday's game being her second win of the weekend Osario has allowed two runs over her last three starts, pitching a total of 19 innings.
The Alabama Crimson Tide (45-12) will now host the Tuscaloosa Super Regional next weekend and will face the Oklahoma Sooners, winners of the Norman Regional this past weekend. This will make the eighth Super Regional hosted by Alabama.
Oklahoma will bring a 48-7 overall record to Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa. The Sooners have an eight game winning streak on the line, including the three at the regional.
Game 1 of the Tuscaloosa Super Regional is set for 6 PM CDT Friday, May 22. Game 2 is scheduled for 4 PM Saturday, and Game 3, if needed, will begin at 7 PM CDT on Saturday.
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Football
Five-star running back recruit and Alabama commit Najee Harris not only competed but was also
MVP at the running back position at Nike Football's Opening Regional In Oakland, California on Sunday.
The Antioch, California native has earned an invitation to The Opening in Beaverton, Oregon coming up in July.
Harris became Alabama's first 2017 commitment when he announced on A-Day.
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Rowing
Photo Credit: rolltide.com
The Alabama Crimson Tide rowing team scored 22 points on Sunday in its inaugural Big 12 Championship, competing in five Grand Final races. This point total was enough for a fifth place finish. This is also the best conference finish in program history.
Head coach Larry Davis said, " We knew we had good depth this year and the points total at the end of today really showed that. We knew Texas would be really good at the top but overall we were much more competitive than in years past. We've shown the ability to come together and compete as a team and we've moved up quite a bit within the conference.
This weekend was a big step forward in the program. I knew that if we did well we could compete in the middle of the pack and that's just what we did."
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - Competing in five Grand Final
races on Sunday, Alabama closed out its inaugural Big 12 Championship
with 22 points, good for a fifth-place finish which is the highest
conference finish in program history. Texas claimed the league title
with 48 points, earning the Big 12's automatic bid to the NCAA
Championships.
Bama senior Maureen Purcell was named to the All-Big 12 Rowing team. Purcell competed this season as a member of the Tides First Varsity 8 boat.
"Maureen is really a model for how we want to build this program," Davis continued. "She started her career here with modest experience and really caught fire in the middle of her career. She rowed over the summers for some really good clubs and that helped her tremendously. The expectations as a program are higher now and she showed that with dedication and a great work ethic, you can really improve yourself as a rower. She took the initiative to do so and it really showed with her contribution to the team. She is certainly deserving of the award and she has been a great asset to this team."
The Tide's Second Varsity 8 and Third Varsity 8 boats both had the highest finishes of the day, with both placing fourth in their races. Bama's First and Second Varsity 4s and its First Varsity 8 all placed sixth.
Texas was the winner with 48 total points. The remainder of the top five finishes were Okalahoma (36) at second, followed by Tennessee (34), Kansas (32), and tied for fifth with Alabama was Kansas (22).
Texas has earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The remainder of the at-large field will be announced May 19 at 4 PM CDT. These will be announced live and can be seen on NCAA.com.
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Baseball
It took a lot of hard work. After having lost the first two games of a three-game series, Alabama baseball came back on Saturday to shut out seventh-ranked Vanderbilt 1-0 to keep from being swept. The Crimson Tide concludes its regular season 30-26 overall and 12-18 in the Southeastern Conference.
Taking four Alabama pitchers to pull it off, the Tide brought head baseball coach Mitch Gaspard his 200th victory at The University of Alabama. This also marks the fifth time in six seasons that Gaspard has achieved a 30-win season.
It would take a Cody Henry single in the sixth inning to bring the one lone run across the plate and deliver the first shut out of the season to the seventh-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores.
Head coach Mitch Gaspard said, "We didn't have many opportunities today, but Cody's hit was huge. We out-hit them, and we were able to muster up just enough offense to get one run. That run was good enough, and that's all it took for the win."
Gaspard had praise for his pitching crew in yesterday's action. "That was an outstanding performance from all of our pitchers today. You really can't say enough about Alex Watkins and Will Carter and their ability to bounce back from a lot of innings on Tuesday to pitch for us tonight. I thought Tommy was really sharp, too, and credit has to go to our pitching staff; they were real good all weekend long."
The Crimson Tide will enter the 2015 SEC Baseball Tournament as the No. 11 seed. Alabama meets the No. 6 seed Ole Miss Rebels Tuesday morning, May 19 at 9:30 AM CDT. Those not able to attend the tourney will be able to view the competition on the SEC Network.
