Photo Credit: rolltide.com
Crimson Tide softball batters were putting the bat to the ball today, hitting four home runs en route to a dominating 11-1 win over Washington. In all, Bama had nine homers over the weekend NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional, bringing their total tally to 58 this season.
No. 6 Alabama was again dominating today, as they have been the past several weeks. Today, Haley McCleney banged out two homers. It was senior catcher Chaunsey Bell knocking a three-run home run, with senior designated player Danielle Richard rocketing a two-run shot.
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. Bama's record improves to 45-12.
The Alabama Crimson Tide will now host the Tuscaloosa Super Regional next weekend and will face the Oklahoma Sooners. More info to follow on the tournament.
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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.
It took four Alabama pitchers to pull it off, but 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.
