The No. 3 Alabama softball team returns to Rhoads Stadium tonight at 6 p.m. to face Troy in its first home game in over a week.
Coming off a series win against Georgia over the weekend, the Tide hopes to keep up the momentum against one of their instate rivals.
Head coach Patrick Murphy said Troy has two big wins this season that should be taken into consideration: Auburn and Louisiana-Lafayette, 7-1 and 9-4, respectively.
“They’re very good this year,” Murphy said. “I would consider this probably their best team. They’re hitting really well. They also have a freshman pitcher [Ashley Rainey] from Tuscaloosa County High School — she’s coming home. So it’s definitely a game that we cannot assume anything or look past. We’ve got to pay attention to them first and foremost because it will be a tough game.”
Historically, the Tide has dominated the Trojans with a record of 15-0.
Junior Jackey Branham said the team is motivated by its last performance at home when Alabama fell 5-1 to Georgia State.
“After our loss against Georgia State we’re not going to be taking any teams lightly, especially a mid-week game against Troy,” Branham said. “We’re definitely going to be coming out with our ‘A game’ because we know they’re going to bring theirs.”
Murphy said Branham was a pivotal force behind Alabama’s series win over Georgia last weekend. She came off the bench to replace injured shortstop Kaila Hunt and hit a home run Friday.
Statistically, the win belongs to the Tide, but the team refuses to discount any opponent.
Senior Olivia Gibson said the Tide’s ranking does not play a part in where the team stands mentally.
“We just need to play our game,” Gibson said. “No matter who the opponent is, no matter if it’s Georgia or Troy, that we just play our game, and we play it together.”
Murphy said the keys to the team’s success against Troy and all future opponents lie in four areas: getting healthy, great defense, good starting pitching and clutch hitting.
“We need to get that two-out RBI more consistent than the opponent,” Murphy said. “When that happens, I think it’s going to be a good run. But we’ve got to get that two-out RBI. We can’t leave people on base, that’s what killed us against Georgia State, and it killed us in the first game against Georgia. But the next day we got those two outs. It’s not something you can just snap your fingers to do. It’s got to be a concentrated effort on the matter with a mentality of ‘I’m going to get this done.’”
Alabama is over two weeks away from postseason play, starting with the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
“We’re just trying to peak at the right time,” Branham said. “We’re starting to get everything together and have everything start clicking. I don’t think we’ve had a game where our offense was completely on, our defense is just completely on and we’re all just completely together for a full game. We’re just hoping that comes out in the postseason.”
