Inside the Tide: Softball Rolls to Florida

Welcome to the “Inside the Tide” softball blog. Chances are I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you yet, but I’m Chad, the voice you hear behind Alabama Softball. I’m thrilled to be calling the games now on the Crimson Tide Sports Network and that we’re on 99.1 WDGM in Tuscaloosa, the station that I work at when I’m not calling softball games.

Our Digital Managing Editor at WDGM, Ben George, pitched the idea of doing this blog to me earlier this week and I was on board from the get go. What we’ll try to do is give you a little bit of an inside look to the softball program (sorry, but we won’t be giving away any trade secrets!). I’ll try to share with you what makes my job of traveling with and calling Alabama softball games such a pleasure. You will hopefully get to know the girls, the people I work with and maybe even myself a little bit through this blog. I’ll include some behind the scenes photos, maybe some “get to know” type videos and some recaps with Coach Murphy.

Well, to get things started, we traveled to Ft. Myers, Fla., on Thursday. It was a 5 a.m. alarm to get to the bus by 6 a.m. (5:45 on Murph time). On the flight from Birmingham to Atlanta I sat next to Mrs. Becky Holland who just so happened to be a big Crimson Tide Softball fan. She had several questions about how the freshmen were stepping up and how we look this year. It’s amazing how many fans we run across while traveling around the country. You guys literally are everywhere!

We arrived in Fort Myers early in the afternoon and minutes after we were on the bus the rain started to pour down and didn’t stop until about 11 p.m. The team was supposed to have a Thursday batting practice at Jackie Traina and Ryan Iamurri’s old stomping grounds (Naples High). We did still get to make our scheduled trip to both girls’ houses though. Traina’s for dinner, which was amazing (ribs, beef and chicken – mac and cheese) and Ryan’s for dessert. It is always cool to get to go to the childhood homes of the student-athletes that you become attached to over the years. This week’s trips did not disappoint. Plenty of embarrassing photos, and the families were pretty cool as well!

After a rainy morning and delayed games, we were able to squeeze in our first game of the LaQuinta Inn & Suites Tournament – and by squeeze, I mean stretch out – a 9-3 win over Appalachian State. Lauren Sewell had a pretty good outing and looked really good striking out the side in the second. Jury came in to close things out and just like that the Tide moved on to 6-0. We’ll play a late game tonight against the tourney host Florida Gulf Coast in front of a packed crowd. You can catch the game as always on 99.1 and 991wdgm.com.

If you have any suggestions for the blog, something you’d like to see or anything like that feel free to give us a shout and let us know. May not be able to please everybody, but we’ll do the best we can!

I’ll have some sort of post every Thursday, Saturday and Monday to the blog, so check the website regularly. Until next time, Roll Tide!