Alabama Softball Recap: Alabama Drops Series in Cajun Country

After opening the series in promising fashion, Louisiana stormed back with impressive wins in games two and three to claim the series over Alabama.

The series defeat provides a reminder to a young Crimson Tide team about the difficulties of beating opponents on the road.

While the pitching duo of Sydney Littlejohn and Alexis Osorio shut down Louisiana’s offense in game one, the Ragin’ Cajuns snatched the momentum away from the Crimson Tide in game two and never looked back the rest of the weekend.

In game one of the series, Sydney Littlejohn held the Ragin to two hits but walked three batters in two and two-thirds innings before giving the ball to Alexis Osorio. The junior from Riverside, California, came into the game with the bases loaded and got out of it by inducing a fielder’s choice ground out to end the bottom of the third inning. From there, Osorio limited Louisiana’s offense to one hit over the final four innings of the game.

Peyton Grantham and Lafayette native Bailey Hemphill recorded both of Alabama’s RBIs thanks to a Grantham solo homer in the top of the first and a run-scoring single from Hemphill in the top of the third.

In the final two games of the series, the Crimson Tide could not keep pace with the Ragin’ Cajuns offense as Alabama scored two runs in the final two games combined while Louisiana lit up the scoreboard for 18 runs in that span.

Louisiana used the long ball to catapult themselves to a series win. DJ Sanders led the way with two round trippers in Sunday’s rubber match while Beth Ashley and Lexie Comeaux went deep in game two Saturday.

Alabama returns home for the first game of a six-game home stand against North Florida. The Ospreys enter the game with plenty of confidence after winning four of five games in the Ospreys Invitational which included an 8-6 win in 10 innings over Kansas.

North Florida brings an offense into Tuscaloosa that is batting .316 as a team and is averaging 6.2 runs per game. Sophomore outfielder Dominica Cocuzza paces the Ospreys with 10 RBIs while sophomore Navia Penrod has a .455 batting average and leads North Florida with 20 hits.

First pitch Wednesday between Alabama and North Florida from Rhoads Stadium is at 6 PM.

College Softball around Alabama

The Auburn Tigers opened the home schedule by winning all six of their games this weekend. The Tigers defeated SIUE and Creighton twice while downing Evansville on Saturday and Mercer on Sunday.

The Troy Trojans also opened their 2017 home schedule with the Trojan Classic. Troy went 5-0 in the Trojans beat Jacksonville and Longwood two times in addition to a 6-2 win on Saturday over Samford.

Jacksonville State went perfect during their weekend in Hattiesburg. The Gamecocks improved their record to 8-1 with two wins over Mississippi Valley State and victories against Nicholls and Southern Miss.

Similar to opening weekend, Samford fell in multiple heartbreakers in Troy this past weekend as they lost four of their five games. The Bulldogs nearly came back from a 7-0 deficit on Saturday against Jacksonville before losing 9-8 in eight innings. They also fell 3-2 in eight innings in their weekend finale against Longwood.

Despite a lackluster weekend in the Sunshine State, UAB managed to notch their first win of the season. The Blazers battled back from a 5-1 deficit in the final inning by scoring five runs in the top of the seventh to top Siena 6-5.