Alabama Softball Releases Full 2023 Schedule
Alabama softball has officially announced its schedule for the 2023 season. The schedule features three home tournaments, four 2022 NCAA Super Regional teams, and two teams from the 2022 Women's College World Series.
The Crimson Tide will play in eight SEC series with Arkansas, South Carolina, Auburn, and LSU all making visits to the Rhoads House. Alabama will host the Leadoff Classic and Bama Bash tournaments in February, as well the Crimson Classic in March. The Tide will travel to Clearwater, Florida to play in the TaxAct Clearwater Invitational from Feb. 16-19 and will travel to Austin, Texas to play in the Bevo Classic from March 10-11. The 2023 SEC Softball Tournament will be held in Fayetteville, Arkansas from May 10-13.
There are several noteworthy games in the upcoming season.
UCLA: The last time Alabama faced the Bruins was during the 2021 Women's College World Series where Montana Fouts famously pitched the fifth ever perfect game in WCWS history, on her 21st birthday, to send the Crimson Tide to that year's semifinals.
Florida State: The Tide had a chance to get revenge against the Seminoles during the 2022 season after FSU eliminated Alabama from the WCWS semifinals in 2021. Unfortunately, the party at the Rhoads House didn't last for long as Florida State came away with a 6-5 victory.
Missouri: There was plenty of controversy during the 2022 series between Alabama and Missouri due to a home run call for a ball that bounced over the wall and back into the field of play, leading to a series win for the Tide. The Tigers used that as motivation to shut out Alabama 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2022 SEC Tournament.
LSU: The Crimson Tide's undefeated streak was snapped in 2022 after LSU dropped a whopping 13 runs on them in game one of the doubleheader in Baton Rouge. The Tigers won again in game two immediately after, winning the series.
Arkansas: The Razorbacks are the defending champions of the SEC and will play a great series in Tuscaloosa. One of Arkansas's biggest contributors last season was none other than 2022 SEC Player of the Year and former Crimson Tide outfielder, KB Sides. It will be interesting to see how Arkansas plays this season without Sides.
Coach Murphy and the Crimson Tide have a big season ahead of them after being eliminated in the 2022 NCAA Regionals and missing the Super Regionals for the first time in program history. It is also worth noting that this will be the final season for Fouts, who has been with the Tide since 2019.
The 2023 softball season starts on February 10th at 3:30pm CST in Tuscaloosa with Alabama taking on Lehigh in the Leadoff Classic.